![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I delivered mail at The Washington Post for people that later worked for me, which was interesting. A lot of well-known people were assistants. kara swisherĪnd that meant what? In Hollywood, the assistant is sort of - it is the path forward. And I ended up getting my first job as an assistant in that group. One was Columbia TriStar pictures, and one was CBS Network. And at that point, I applied to every TV and film company, production company’s network, and to everybody. I had no idea the difference between any of those things. And I think I wanted to be - I probably was like, I want to make films. I just started at A and just wrote letters because I knew just the general meeting, at least getting in the door and learning, because the truth is, at that time, I wanted to be in entertainment. kara swisherīut you wrote hundreds of - trying to get a job, correct? bela bajaria I wrote letters for a general meeting to - back then it was the Hollywood Creative Directory, which was like literally the phone book for Hollywood. How did you break in? So here you are with nobody to look up to, with a media that’s very much not your experience whatsoever. There’s nobody there that you could look up to. And it never occurred to me, because I was an Indian woman 23, 24 years ago when I got in the business, that I couldn’t do it. But I wanted to be a part of telling a story on a large scale. And so for me, I wanted to be in the entertainment industry because I loved - I appreciated writing, and I appreciated the craft of many of those things. And everybody watches it at the same time or different times, but the story has an impact on many people. And I loved this idea of this impact of storytelling, which might go all the way back to the roots of me watching TV in that way, that connected so many people. It’s just such an amazing craft that I definitely have no skill in, and but I really admire it. I really admire writers and just in every form. Is that correct? bela bajariaĪnd you worked there. So what attracted you to this, the television business? Because you’re Indian-American kid with no connections in Hollywood, right? Your family owned a car wash. It’s called pulling a Madonna, and it never ends well. And now sadly, many years later, I can’t even fake a British accent. And that really is where I learned about culture and the accent. So I just didn’t have - I just lost every trace of it. When I look back at that time, I watched “I Dream of Jeannie,” I watched “Gomer Pyle,” which I remember, and “Bewitched.” But the accent at nine years old, which is extraordinary, in three months, I had no trace of a British accent. What were the television shows? I think you said “I Dream of Jeannie” was one of them. And that really was, I think - now that I look back, I mean, it was very - I really sort of disappeared into television a lot, of just learning so much about America. And I watched the television to learn the American accent and learn American culture. And I ended up after school every day watching a lot of television. So the British accent as a nine-year-old girl had to go. And so I figured one thing had to go, and the brown wasn’t going anywhere. And when I moved to Los Angeles, it was a culture shock in many ways. I was a brown girl with a British accent, and there were just no Indian people around, and being used to being in Africa and London where there was a large Indian community and it wasn’t - didn’t feel weird to be Indian or as weird. It was a hard time because I moved to Los Angeles. Very typical immigrant route for that trajectory of following business and opportunity. So we have a Africa, India, London sort of connection. My family’s Indian, but my family - my parents were both born and raised in East Africa. Can you talk a little bit about that as how you rose and how TV impacted you in growing up? bela bajaria And you’re the person people in Hollywood certainly know but not a lot of other people know is responsible for a lot of what they’re watching. And they always go, oh, Reed Hastings or Ted Sarandos. ![]() I said, oh, I’m doing the person who’s really in charge of all the programming you like on Netflix. When I mention your name - I was talking to a lot of people. She’s fed us shows through the pandemic like “Indian Matchmaking,” “Money Heist,” and “Unorthodox.” And she’s probably going to be behind whatever we’ll binge next. She’s running all TV everywhere for the streaming giant. Now she’s head of global television at Netflix. Have you ever watched “The Mindy Project,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” or “The Good Place?” Behind all those shows and many more was Bela Bajaria. (SINGING) When you walk in the room, do you have sway? Transcript What’s Next in Your Netflix Queue? Bela Bajaria decides. ![]()
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