Aryan Khan’s The Ba**ds of Bollywood* Is a Top Performer on Netflix — How It Measured Up to Wednesday and Untamed
When Aryan Khan launched his Netflix series The Ba**ds of Bollywood*, it arrived with built-in curiosity: a famous surname, a high-profile production house, and chatter around whether the show would be provocative or sentimental. The result? A solid debut on Netflix’s charts — notable, especially for a Hindi-language show from a first-time showrunner — but clearly operating on a different scale than global blockbusters like Wednesday and the Anglo-language hit Untamed.
Below I break down the facts, explain why The Ba**ds of Bollywood* performed the way it did, and show how it stacks up against the week’s biggest streaming draws.
What The Ba**ds of Bollywood* is — quick facts
The Ba**ds of Bollywood* is Aryan Khan’s directorial debut as a creator and showrunner. The seven-episode series released on Netflix on September 18, 2025, and is produced under Red Chillies Entertainment. It blends satire, drama and elements of action while taking aim at Bollywood’s behind-the-scenes culture.
Early numbers: strong debut for a local series
In its opening days the show recorded respectable figures for a regional-language drama on a global platform. Netflix-reported and industry trackers put the series at roughly 2.8 million views in its first four days, enough to place it among the global top titles for that week. Viewers logged an estimated 14.8 million hours of watch time in the early run — an indicator that many who started it were watching multiple episodes.
Those numbers are a win for a new director on a seven-episode serialized project: they signal interest, strong initial discovery and good completion rates — all useful when Netflix decides on future promotion or renewal.
How it compared to Wednesday and Untamed (the headline comparison)
The best way to understand scale is to compare apples to apples: during the same general period Netflix was hosting huge English-language hits.
Wednesday (the Jenna Ortega fantasy/crime series) returned with a massive week — some reports show tens of millions of views (Season 2 registered blockbuster weekly tallies, with official week-by-week reports in the tens of millions). In short: Wednesday ran at a global, blockbuster level far beyond what The Ba**ds* managed during its first week.
Untamed, a compact thriller set around Yosemite, also dominated Netflix’s English-language charts earlier in the summer. It posted multi-million weekly tallies (for example, 24–26 million views in initial weeks) and accumulated tens of millions of total views in a few weeks — again, a much larger footprint than a single Hindi debut series typically achieves on the global lists.
Put simply: The Ba**ds of Bollywood* performed very well for an Indian streaming series and entered global top lists, but its raw numbers are smaller than the top English-language global blockbusters like Wednesday and Untamed. That gap reflects language, scale of marketing, existing franchise momentum, and global audience reach.
Why Aryan Khan’s show still matters — beyond the numbers
Numbers aren’t the whole story. Here’s why The Ba**ds of Bollywood* matters even if it didn’t match the tens-of-millions totals of the biggest Netflix hits.
- Local cultural resonance. The show’s satire and inside-baseball references connected strongly with Indian audiences and South Asian viewers globally, helping it chart in multiple countries’ top lists.
- Built-in curiosity and star backing. Aryan Khan’s association with prominent industry figures — production from Red Chillies and visible support from family and established actors — amplified discovery and media coverage. That attention translates into strong opening weeks for home-market shows.
- Binge-friendly length and pacing. With seven episodes running around 40–50 minutes, the series offered a compact, bingeable format that helped convert views into hours watched. Watch-hours statistics (the 14.8 million figure in early reporting) underscore that viewers stayed engaged.
- Conversation and controversy. The series prompted social-media debate — including claims of scenes referencing real-life events — which, true or not, often helps discovery. It also led to legal attention after a former official reportedly raised a defamation claim related to a portrayal, keeping the show in the headlines.
What these numbers mean for Aryan Khan’s future on streaming
Breaking into Netflix’s global top lists, even briefly, is meaningful for a first-time showrunner. It proves three things to the streamer and producers: there’s an audience, the show can generate press and social buzz, and it can sustain viewing time — key ingredients for renewal consideration or future projects.
For Aryan Khan specifically, this launch is a strong industry calling card. He demonstrated storytelling chops, the ability to attract a notable cast, and the capacity to spark conversation — all useful if Netflix and producers choose to invest in a second season or new projects.
Takeaway for viewers and industry watchers
If you’re a viewer deciding whether to watch, think of The Ba**ds of Bollywood* as a locally rooted, satirical drama with a handful of standout performances and enough momentum to make it worth sampling — especially if you like behind-the-scenes industry stories.
If you’re watching Netflix’s charts to spot trends, the show is a reminder that regional content can break into global lists and that viewership scale depends on language, marketing muscle, and franchise momentum. Big English-language hits like Wednesday and Untamed will continue to rack up larger raw numbers, but strong regional hits are increasingly important to Netflix’s global catalogue strategy.
Final note on facts and sources
All viewership numbers and chart positions in this article are taken from Netflix data published via Tudum and industry reportage in the weeks following the show’s release, along with coverage in major Indian and international outlets. Key figures: The Ba**ds of Bollywood* released on September 18, 2025 and logged roughly 2.8 million views in its opening days and around 14.8 million hours watched early on; by contrast, summer hits like Untamed and franchise blockbusters like Wednesday registered multi-week totals measured in the tens of millions of views.
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