In India, cricket isn’t just a sport — it’s a cultural juggernaut, a unifying force that transcends language, class, and geography. For global streaming platforms like Netflix, cracking the Indian market has been a daunting challenge.
Subscription costs often feel exorbitant to local consumers, and while Bollywood content is a draw, Netflix’s catalog still lacks the depth to compete with homegrown platforms.
But Netflix has found a clever workaround: if you can’t stream live cricket, you can tell its stories. Enter Unbroken: The Story of Unmukt Chand, a new documentary directed by Raghav Khanna that promises to tap into India’s cricket obsession while offering a narrative twist that resonates deeply with local audiences.
The Indian Premier League (IPL), the country’s premier cricket tournament, commands astronomical broadcasting rights, with fierce competition among media giants to secure them. For Netflix, entering this costly battlefield isn’t an option. Instead, the platform is leveraging cricket’s emotional pull through storytelling. Unbroken follows the life of Unmukt Chand, a former rising star in Indian cricket who led the Under-19 team to a World Cup victory in 2012. But this isn’t a typical sports biopic celebrating triumph.
Chand’s story takes a darker turn: after chasing the “American dream” and moving to Los Angeles to play in a fledgling cricket league, his career faltered, and his life took unexpected detours.
What makes this documentary a masterstroke for Netflix is its subversion of the classic success narrative. Chand’s struggles abroad — far from the adulation he enjoyed in India — offer a cautionary tale that’s likely to strike a chord with Indian viewers. The film doesn’t just sell cricket; it taps into a cultural sentiment of schadenfreude, inviting audiences to reflect on the perils of abandoning one’s roots for foreign shores. For a country where cricket is akin to religion, and where narratives of “making it” abroad are both aspirational and contentious, this story is a goldmine.
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Netflix’s strategy is clear: use cricket as a Trojan horse to build a deeper connection with Indian subscribers. By focusing on a figure like Chand, whose journey mirrors the dreams and disillusionments of many, the platform offers more than entertainment — it delivers a cultural conversation.
Unbroken isn’t just about a cricketer’s rise and fall; it’s a reflection of identity, ambition, and the cost of chasing dreams in a globalized world. In a market where live sports are out of reach, Netflix is betting that a compelling story, wrapped in the aura of cricket, is the next best thing to grow its audience.
With Unbroken: The Story of Unmukt Chand, Netflix isn’t just streaming content — it’s playing a smarter game, one that could redefine how global platforms engage with India’s cricket-crazy millions.
