Inside the surprising worldwide success of Netflix’s new hijacking thriller

polygon.com:

One of Netflix’s new thrillers is taking off explosively worldwide. The efficient Indian mid-air heist film Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga (the title loosely translates to The Thief Slipped Away) debuted among the top 10 most-watched movies and shows in 45 different countries, according to independent auditor Ernst & Young, making it the company’s third-most-streamed non-English-language property around the world. A light but propulsive film with numerous twists and turns, it’s the kind of mid-budget genre piece that would have made for a fun DVD rental on family movie night 15 or 20 years ago, so its appeal is hardly shocking. But the biggest surprise is just how well the film has fared compared to Netflix’s other Indian offerings, especially those with more bankable or recognizable stars.

Unlike most Indian movies to cross over to international streaming markets, like the Hindi dub of the global Telugu-language breakout RRR or the Bollywood period piece Gangubai Kathiawadi — which reached the top 10 in 64 and 47 territories respectively, the highest numbers for Indian productions since Netflix began publicizing this statistic in 2021 — Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga is a Netflix original. It began its life on the streaming platform, rather than coming off a successful theatrical run with preexisting fanfare.

The film stars Sunny Kaushal as suave, flirty insurance agent Ankit Sethi and Yami Gautam as Neha, the sweet but headstrong flight attendant Ankit falls in love with. This romantic duo is roped into a desperate diamond heist at 30,000 feet — which also happens to coincide with a hijacking. Both actors have appeared in Bollywood productions before (notably, Gautam featured in the blockbuster 2019 war movie Uri: The Surgical Strike),