India’s Micro-Drama Boom

India is stepping into the spotlight of the global micro-drama wave, with homegrown startups, streaming majors, and international investors all chasing the promise of serialised, phone-native stories told in just two minutes per episode. What began as an experiment inspired by China’s runaway success is now becoming one of India’s fastest-growing entertainment trends.

Short, binge-worthy dramas of one to two minutes, ending on cliffhangers designed to hook the next view, have become a serious content play. Startups like Flick TV, Eloelo, Kuku FM, Chai Shots, and ReelSaga are building platforms dedicated to these stories, while larger players, including Amazon, ShareChat, and Zee Entertainment, are testing their own micro-drama offerings.

Manohar Charan, CFO of ShareChat, said that in just the past three months, 1.5 crore users consumed drama shorts on Moj and Quick TV, with more than 10 crore episodes watched daily. “The end game is to have the largest user base,” he noted, emphasizing that professional-quality, serialized storytelling is what separates micro-dramas from the short, disconnected clips dominating Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

Investors are taking notice. Bengaluru-based Flick TV raised $2.3 million from Stellaris Venture Partners earlier this month, while ReelSaga attracted $2.1 million in May from Picus Capital. Hyderabad-based Chai Shots is reportedly close to securing a $5 million round. Mayank Jain of Stellaris explains the appeal: “Micro-dramas promise the best of both worlds—short formats that match shrinking attention spans, but with emotional engagement and structured narratives that users connect with.”

Major entertainment groups are also diving in. Amazon MX Player already streams MX Fatafat, a slate of mini-series built around two-minute episodes. Zee Entertainment has partnered with Bullet, a content-tech startup, to launch a micro-drama app targeting young audiences within its Zee5 ecosystem. Meanwhile, Eloelo is preparing to debut Story TV, and ShareChat has rolled out Quick TV as a paywalled platform for dramas and films. Kuku FM, best known for audio storytelling, recently expanded into video with Kuku TV. These moves signal not just experimentation, but the serious beginnings of a new market.

The biggest question is monetisation. India’s entertainment industry faces low average revenue per user (ARPU), making it harder to sustain new formats. Flick TV is betting on a micropayment-per-episode model with the option to scale into subscriptions. ShareChat is exploring a mix of ads and subscriptions, estimating that micro-dramas could account for a “mid to high teens” share of its revenue within 18 months.

Production costs are dropping dramatically thanks to generative AI, which is now being used for scripting, storyboarding, dubbing, and editing. ShareChat estimates costs have fallen by as much as 75% in two years, making experimentation with volume and speed more viable. Still, not everyone is convinced. Platforms like Pratilipi are holding back, preferring to wait for the hype to settle and the market to consolidate before making their own push into vertical dramas.

What’s next?

India’s micro-drama scene is still in its early stages, but it’s already attracting millions of daily views, millions of dollars in investment, and buy-in from both startups and media giants. If China’s experience is any indication, the next phase will be about refining business models, building loyal audiences, and proving staying power beyond early buzz. For now, India looks set to become the world’s next major testbed for whether two-minute fiction can scale into a sustainable global business.

Article written by Blessing Azugama

#BlessingAzugama

Sources

• Economic Times, June 17, 2025