Alia Bhatt-starrer Darlings hits Netflix’s Top 10 with over 10 million viewing hours

Alia Bhatt’s latest Darlings (2022) is currently trending in Netflix’s top 10 films (non-English) list in 16 countries around the world and has been watched for over 10 million hours on its opening weekend.

Darlings review: Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah lead this terrific dark comedy
 
Produced by Red Chillies Entertainment and Bhatt’s own Eternal Sunshine Productions, the dark comedy is directed by Jasmeet K Reen. Also starring Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma and Roshan Mathew, Darlings revolves around a mother-and-daughter duo, Badru (Bhatt) and Shamshu (Shah), who set out to teach an abusive husband a lesson.

Since Darlings premiered on 5 August, it has been trending at number four in the top 10 films list in 16 countries across the Americas, Africa and Asia including UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, Kenya and Trinidad and Tobago. It has the highest global opening ever for a non-English original Indian film with more than 10 million viewing hours.

SS Rajamouli's global blockbuster RRR (2022), which also stars Bhatt, sits in the ninth position with 2.5 million hours in its 12th week on the streaming platform.

Talking about the appreciation that Darlings has attained, filmmaker Reen shared, “Seeing our labour of love, Darlings being received so well by audiences across the world, is truly heart-warming. As a filmmaker, it’s great to see that Darlings has a platform to be watched and loved by viewers around the world with the click of a button and to be trending globally on Netflix just in the opening week feels surreal! It's truly a wonderful and fulfilling feeling to see this story resonate with viewers globally and I can't wait to see how more people receive it in the coming days!”

Producer and lead actress Bhatt stated that she was overjoyed by the overwhelmingly good response to the film and was eager to see its progess. She said, “Darlings has always been a unique and special film for me, and as soon as I read the script, I knew I wanted to be involved—not just as an actor, but also in a bigger way—in bringing these different stories to the audience and I'm glad Netflix is where it lives. It's incredible to see that the film has a global audience with Netflix and with it trending in the top 10 in 16 countries across the globe just in the opening week is incredible!”

Monika Shergill, vice president of content at Netflix India, added, "We are thrilled with the immense love and appreciation for our film, Darlings in India and around the world. The film combines powerful performances by Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah and Vijay Varma along with a riveting screenplay, raising the bar for entertaining and thought-provoking cinema in India.”