Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Ssharma's Clean Slate Filmz strikes ₹400 crore deal with Netflix and Amazon Prime

Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Ssharma's Clean Slate Filmz has struck a $54 million deal with streaming giants for eight films and web series.

Amazon and Netflix are partnering with Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Ssharma's production house Clean Slate Filmz with a deal worth about ₹400 crore ($54 million).

Karnesh Ssharma and Anushka Sharma own Clean Slate Films.

As per a report by Bloomberg, Clean Slate Filmz will release eight films and series on streaming services in the next 18 months. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed they will reveal three upcoming productions with Clean Slate Filmz, while Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Clean Slate Filmz has produced films NH10, Phillauri and Pari for the theatres, which all starred Anushka Sharma in the lead. It later also produced the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime Series Paatal Lok and Netflix movie Bulbbul. Their next release will be Qala, with Tripti Dimri and late actor Irrfan Khan's son Babil and Chakda Xpress with Anushka.

Recently, Netflix slashed its subscription costs in India (while raising them in the US) by as much as 60% in a bid to recapture the market share from Amazon and Walt Disney Co, who currently dominate entertainment platforms in the country. Netflix’s co-founder Reed Hastings has even talked about how the company hasn't been able to impress Indians. "The great news is that in every single other major market, we've got the flywheel spinning. The thing that frustrates us is why haven't we been as successful in India, but we're definitely leaning in there," he said.

Karnesh told Bloomberg that the competition between OTT giants has meant that budgets are rising, so is the will to experiment. “What has happened over a period of time is ambition is also going up within the studio systems,” he said. “And that’s great for people like us.”