The story was captured through the experience of a film producer who decided to rent his production space in downtown LA for occasional music video shoots. However, to his surprise, the facility started getting booked year-round for filming micro dramas, so much so that he opened two more shooting spaces.
MUMBAI: Global news agency Reuters had an eye-catching report earlier this week encapsulating the micro drama boom in the US.
Vertical drama revenues in the US are likely to touch $2 billion soon, according to research firm Omdia, the report said. 80% of the people in the Kantar survey said they prefer watching micro dramas on their mobiles, almost on a par with the 81% who said they watch reels and short videos. It has become a daily habit with 86% of those surveyed watching it for 15 minutes a day,” said Manohar Charan, co-founder and CFO at ShareChat and Moj which launched its micro drama app QuickTV last year. 68% of the audience belonged to households earning over ₹ 10 lakh annually, 64% travelled more than twice a year and 63% owned a home. Mid-2026 data from Sensor Tower said cumulative downloads for short drama apps in India surpassed 800 million. StoryTV from the Eloelo group was the only micro drama app in India’s top 10 downloads rankings. “Also, if a micro drama fails, you lose about ₹ 25 lakh.
From China to the US to now India – the micro drama format has travelled well and become part of the daily life of viewers. Micro drama is going mainstream. Mainstreaming of micro dramas doesn’t mean people have stopped watching TV or streaming services. “It means that it is no longer a passing fad. Back home, Kantar’s survey debunked the myth that micro dramas are watched only by low-income audiences. The Reuters report mentioned that in the US micro dramas are attracting Hollywood actors, writers, directors as well as investments from tech companies and studios. There is similar action in India, evident in deals between Applause Entertainment and StoryTV, and Yash Raj Films and Rusk Media to create short-form content IPs. Big studios’ interest in the format is understandable. The cost of failure of a film is steep,” he added.
Defined by vertical storytelling of one to two minutes per episode, mobile users here are spending more time on this programming format, said a new study by Kantar for the Indian short video app firm that operates QuickTV, ShareChat and Moj. To be sure, in the US, vertical micro drama apps surpassed traditional platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video in daily mobile user engagement, said research firm Omdia. Though the low-income households picked the trend early, the higher income classes are now joining the party, Kantar study said. The buzz is huge for a format that’s still nascent, said Vicky Bahri, founder and CEO of the four-months-old micro drama app Klip. “The buzz is loud because the demand for vertical dramas is phenomenal and it is jumping multi-fold,” said the Bollywood producer and director. QuickTV’s Manohar Charan said they are also partnering with a studio to create a slate of shows for its micro drama platforms. Klip said since it’s creating original IPs instead of copying Chinese and Korean shows, it is getting requests for content partnerships from other apps. “The business is getting bigger and they are noticing its potential,” Bahri said. Charan said studios are turning to micro dramas as it’s a lower-risk bet unlike theatrical films. But you can get a viewer to open a micro drama app on his mobile five times a day,” Charan said.
“Today, getting audiences to theatres even once a month is a big ask.
