Are microdramas changing the way India binge-watches?

In just ninety seconds, you witness heartbreak, deception and shocking twists that once belonged only to long-running soap operas dominating television evenings. All thanks to microdramas, that condense all these elements into vertical frames, offering an addictive and snackable way to experience content.Fast, fun, fleetingWhat was once the territory of long-running soaps is now unfolding on smartphones in bite-sized dramas. “The idea started when I saw my mom watching content online. I realised people now prefer snackable, mobile-first content over TV,” says co-founder of a Hindi mobile OTT platform, Kushal Singhal. His platform banks on originals, regional flavours & AI-assisted productions. Actress Triparna Bardhan calls shoots “fast but challenging,” while admitting audiences connect easily with the format.

Dibyajyoti Bose, a viewer says, “They’re addictive because every scene ends on a hook. You look forward to the next.”Why your feed is full of mini melodramasThey are engineered for mobile phone viewing with vertical shots and tight close-ups Quick, addictive with episodes wrapping up under two minutes, and seasons in less than an hour Microdramas always start in the middle of chaos, hooking viewers who want to know the story more deeplyIt has zero downtime. Hitting the ‘next episode’ button has become a reflexWhat’s trending worldwideBorn from Chinese duan ju or ‘short dramas’ that conquered TikTok, the format has rapidly exploded worldwide.

From India’s Hindi and regional experiments to China’s already booming short drama economy, these pocket sized binges are shaping how Indian creators reimagine digital storytelling for a generation hooked to endless scrolling.Genres trending: Revenge + romance: Secret weddings, affairs Fantasy: Time travel, reincarnations Mystery & horror: Haunted apartments, vanishing lovers and cursed inheritances AI-made stories Interactive endings: Where viewers choose the fate of the charactersMicrodrama by the numbers 68% of microdrama viewers on short-video platforms come from tier-two cities like Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kota, and Patna — nearly twice the share seen in tier-one metros1 Rural India now has 90m more internet users than urban areas, with user growth at 10% year-on-year—double the 5% growth in cities2 Microdrama market is projected to reach $5b in the next five years3 The short-form video segment, including microdrama, is projected to reach $8–12 billion by 20304`15-50L is the production cost range of a microdrama series in IndiaSources: 1.FICCI-EY Report, “Shape the future: Indian media and entertainment is scripting a new story” (2024); 2.IAMAI-Kantar Internet Report (2024-2025); 3.Kushal Singhal, co-founder of Flick TV to Moneycontrol; 4. RedSeer Strategy Consultants, Short-Form Video Market Report