Netflix is under the watchful eye of law enforcement in India, which is investigating allegations that the streaming TV company violated laws about work visas and may have practiced racial discrimination.
Deepak Yadav with India’s Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) sent a letter to the company’s former director of legal affairs, Nandini Mehta. The letter states that India is investigating “visa and tax violations” as well as alleged “incidents of racial discrimination” that Netflix is accused of engaging in while doing business in India.
Mehta herself is suing Netflix in the U.S. saying she was wrongfully fired and was the victim of discrimination based on her race and sex. The company denies Mehta’s claims. In response to news about India’s investigation into her former employer, Mehta said she was glad to see it and hoped law enforcement would make what they find public.
But Netflix says it has not been notified of any legal investigation “by the Indian government.”
Netflix has about 10 million subscribers in India, a small percentage of the country’s population of 1.4 billion, and it’s interested in growing. To do so, Netflix has been creating more movies and shows featuring “Bollywood” actors, as the Indian movie industry is called. The company is facing some of the same kinds of cultural complaints that have bedeviled U.S. moviemakers. Netflix was maneuvered into adding text disclaimers into a recent miniseries made for India about a plane hijacking. Outraged viewers (or at least people who claimed they were viewers when they complained on social media) said Netflix portrayed Muslim hijackers as if they were Hindus.
India has been trying to get back taxes out of Netflix since 2023, and the company is fighting this demand. But this is the first time news has broken about what appears to be a larger government investigation into the company’s practices around work visas, and it’s the first time anyone has publicly alleged racial discrimination in Netflix’s India operations.
So far it is not clear just which government agencies may be investigating Netflix. While it is known that the FRRO is involved, that office works closely with the country’s intelligence division.
