Mumbai: Prime Video is sharpening its focus on India as a key growth market, with senior leadership underlining the country’s strategic importance and its role in shaping global content trends at the Prime Video Presents 2026 event.

The insights emerged during a fireside chat featuring Karan Johar with global executives including Kelly Day, Nicole Clemens, and Gaurav Gandhi, highlighting how India continues to influence the platform’s international strategy.

Kelly Day described India as “one of the most important markets” globally for Prime Video, driven by scale, diversity, and deep audience engagement. She noted that Indian Originals are not only central to subscriber growth but also among the platform’s largest content investments worldwide, reflecting evolving viewer preferences and regional storytelling depth.

Nicole Clemens, who leads International Originals, emphasized the global appeal of Indian content, pointing out that nearly 25 percent of viewership for Indian shows आता from outside the country. She highlighted that culturally rooted stories with universal themes—seen in titles like ‘The Family Man’, ‘Mirzapur’, ‘Paatal Lok’ and ‘Farzi’—have demonstrated strong global traction, reinforcing India’s role in the platform’s international success.

She also revealed that Prime Video currently has over 100 shows in development and production, with more than 60% of its Original series extending into multiple seasons, signalling strong franchise-building capabilities. The company is now expanding into newer intellectual properties and even exploring India’s first streaming superhero concept, further diversifying its content slate.

From a business standpoint, Kelly Day outlined India’s unique streaming model, which blends subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), transactional video-on-demand (TVOD), and ad-supported offerings. She noted that innovations such as tiered pricing, mobile-first plans, and bundled memberships were pioneered in India and later scaled to global markets, reflecting the country’s role as a testing ground for platform innovation.

Gaurav Gandhi, Vice President for APAC & ANZ, said the platform’s India strategy is now focused on four key priorities: expanding accessibility across price points, scaling global distribution of Indian content, building long-term franchises, and strengthening the movies business. He highlighted that Indian content is increasingly being released across 240 countries simultaneously, enhancing its global reach beyond traditional theatrical limitations.

He also pointed to the success of returning franchises and new Originals, noting that recent titles continue to evolve into multi-season properties, reinforcing Prime Video’s long-term content strategy. At the same time, the platform is moving deeper into film production, including theatrical releases under the Amazon MGM Studios banner, before transitioning them to streaming.

Looking ahead, Clemens underscored a broader global shift where non-English storytelling is gaining prominence, with genres like romance, thriller, and young adult (YA) content seeing strong traction across markets. For India, the focus remains on delivering high-quality, culturally authentic stories that resonate both locally and internationally.

With nearly a decade of operations in India, Prime Video’s leadership indicated that the market will remain central to its global roadmap—both as a content powerhouse and as a hub for innovation in streaming models.