Bard of Blood: Netflix Tests Limited Free Access in India for Shah Rukh Khan-Produced Original

Not sure if Bard of Blood is worth a Netflix subscription? Well, fret not. Netflix is offering limited free access to the first episode of its latest original series from India — produced by Shah Rukh Khan-founded Red Chillies, and based on first-time author Bilal Siddiqi's book of the same name — without even having to sign up for the streaming service. The free access to Bard of Blood season 1, episode 1 “What's Past is Prologue” is limited in the sense that it's only available on certain browsers on certain platforms: Chrome only on Android, or Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and most modern browsers on computers. Unfortunately, Bard of Blood free access is not available on iOS, smart TVs, Chromecast, or Fire Stick.

Review: Bard of Blood Is Bad, and Shah Rukh Khan Should Feel Bad

“At Netflix, we try different ways to bring people closer to great stories,” the world's biggest streaming service said in a prepared statement. “We believe many people will find the thrilling story of spy Kabir Anand (Emraan Hashmi) very appealing and are excited to make the first episode of the series available to everyone for a limited time. In the future, we will consider if we will do this for other films and series.” Netflix didn't say what the limited time period the Bard of Blood free access would be available for.

Netflix has previously done this in other countries with other original shows. After the release of the second season of the Spanish-language teen thriller school drama Élite earlier in September, the first episode of the first season was made available for limited free viewing in parts of Latin America, including Mexico and Colombia, where Élite is immensely popular. Netflix isn't the first one to offer limited free access in the hopes of driving subscription growth though — YouTube used to do this with its originals as well.

In India, offering free access comes on the back of Netflix introducing a Rs. 199 mobile-only plan to incentivise subscriptions in the country. Bard of Blood is far from the best original series to try out the new strategy, we are afraid, considering the quality of the content that's on offer.

To watch the first episode of Bard for Blood for free, head to the Netflix home page or go straight to netflix.com/bardofblood. Do note that it won't work in an incognito / private browser window.

Bard of Blood released September 27 on Netflix worldwide.