In September, the platform also announced a multiyear collaboration deal with the Indian producer and director Karan Johar’s streaming production house, Dharmatic Entertainment. Johar’s first production with Netflix, “Drive” was released in November. New projects slated for 2020 include debuts for the Bollywood actress Kajol as well as the fashion designer Masaba Gupta.

Amazon released 10 original Indian shows in 2019, including the spy series “Family Man,” starring the veteran Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee, which was the company’s first original series from India to be dubbed in English. (Previous original offerings, like “Inside Edge” and “Made in Heaven,” used a mix of Hindi and English and have been dubbed in other regional languages.) Amazon, too, is pulling in star power: In addition to Bajpayee, his fellow Bollywood leads Akshay Kumar and Anushka Sharma have Amazon projects in the works.

It’s easy to see why Netflix and Amazon would want to expand their presence in India, and not just because it is home to 1.3 billion people. As in much of the viewing world, streaming has exploded in the country — at least 30 companies now offer video streaming services there, up from nine in 2012.

What sets the American streamers apart is a focus on original programming and an ability to market series for a global audience.

Hotstar, which controls an estimated 75 percent of India’s streaming market, carries critically acclaimed HBO shows like “Succession” and a Hindi version of “The Office” alongside plenty of existing programming from its parent company, Star India. (Like much of the entertainment world, Star is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.) Indian streamers that do carry originals, like Zee5 and Eros Now, have had trouble cracking international markets.