EXCLUSIVE: Aloke Devichand, Netflix’s Head of Asian Original Documentaries who commissioned docs on Blackpink and Naomi Osaka along with an Oscar-nominated short, has exited the streamer after nearly five years.
Devichand joined Netflix in 2018 in the newly-created post to build a slate of docs from the Asia-Pacific region, which Netflix has been prioritizing of late. He won’t be replaced like-for-like but Netflix will continue prioritizing APAC non-scripted via country content teams.
Former CNN and Al Jazeera exec Devichand oversaw a slate featuring the likes of Blackpink: Light up the Sky and Naomi Osaka about the Japanese tennis icon. He more recently worked on Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice and Oscar-nominated short The Elephant Whisperers. The former won Thailand its first ever International Emmy for Best Documentary and the latter tells the heartwarming story of an indigenous couple who are given an orphaned elephant to look after.
Devichand has returned to the UK to be closer to his family and is freelancing with the likes of Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse Productions and Netflix’s My Daughter’s Killer indie Rogan Productions.
For the latter company, he is EPing an upcoming doc feature on the Euro 2020 final for Netflix.
Deadline revealed the as-yet-untitled show last week, which will chart a dramatic day in which hosts England lost to Italy on penalties and there was chaos as thousands of un-ticketed fans attempted to storm Wembley Stadium.
