Microdramas, Korean dramas and anime have emerged as the fastest-growing content formats since 2025, outpacing homegrown content across languages as younger viewers embrace international storytelling and diverse genres.
Audience sizes for microdramas, K-dramas and anime grew 50%, 48% and 32%, respectively, according to a recent report by media consulting firm Ormax Media. The findings are based on a survey of 15,000 respondents conducted in June and July 2026. India's OTT audience universe is estimated at 664.9 million.
Consumers are becoming comfortable matching different formats to different screens and consumption occasions, including bite-sized content during smaller pockets of time through the day.
“The growth of microdramas, K-dramas and anime reflect how audiences are becoming more open to different formats and storytelling styles,” said Sanjay Dwivedi, Group CEO and chief financial officer, Balaji Telefilms. “Microdramas, in particular, are designed around mobile-first, short-session consumption, while K-dramas and anime bring distinctive storytelling, genres, and production styles to Indian audiences.”
Part of the high growth rates reflects the fact that these formats are still expanding their addressable audiences, while Indian films and long-form series are significantly more established content categories, according to Hemant Kaul, partner and leader, research and insights, BDO India.
Microdrama is still largely a category-creation story, with a relatively new format scaling very rapidly. K-drama had a major inflection point in India around the pandemic, so its current growth is better understood as category broadening, as wider distribution and localisation help it reach audiences beyond its initial fan base. Anime is an even older format in India, but is now moving further into the mainstream, Kaul added.
The wide availability of such content in dubbed languages, often for free, has ensured deep penetration, according to Keerat Grewal, head, business development (streaming, TV & brands), Ormax Media. Platforms, including big players like Netflix, are making a concentrated effort to offer the same, she added.
Cost advantage
Cost is a mjaor factor. A microdrama episode costs about ₹20,000 to ₹50,000 to produce, against over ₹25 lakh for a typical OTT original,” said Bhavesh Joshi, founder and CEO of MovieMe. That allows platforms to iterate fast and cheaply.
Meanwhile, long-form is moving the opposite way: Indian originals fell 18% in 2024 and another 13% in 2025 to their lowest count since 2020, Joshi added.
There’s also an emotional specificity angle. These formats don’t try to appeal to everyone, but are built around specific tone, character archetypes, and emotional payoff, according to Anshita Kulshrestha, founder, TukTuki Entertainments.
Platforms are also becoming more selective about large long-form investments. Consolidation has concentrated content greenlighting among a smaller number of teams, said Vinay Pillai, chief business officer, Pocket Aces.
Overall content spending will remain healthy, but spending per intellectual property and the cost per minute are likely to decline. Platforms are also focusing on building IPs that generate longer watch times, alongside a few large-scale properties that can drive subscriptions, Pillai added.
Long formats build equity, drives customer acquisitions and give platforms cultural relevance but is also high risk, said Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea. Neo-formats are frequency devices for customer acquisition, but maybe at about one-tenth the pace.
“Platforms are reserving massive budgets for tentpole event programming like big franchises and star-led movies while cutting back heavily on middle-tier long-form shows mainly because they see audience appetite is being fulfilled by mobile entertainment or imported IPs,” said Sharlton Menezes, vice-president, IP and key partnerships at Pratilipi & Double Tap Films.
Still, the formats are likely to play different roles rather than compete directly. The Indian digital audience is no longer one homogenous audience, according to Anuj Gosalia, founder and CEO of Terribly Tiny Tales, part of Collective Artists Network.
Younger viewers are more comfortable discovering content through feeds, recommendations and creators, and are open to consuming stories across languages and geographies. At the same time, families and connected-TV viewers continue to gravitate towards longer, more immersive viewing.
“Long-form content still has an important place in the ecosystem. Particularly in larger markets, strong long-form originals can play a significant role in establishing a platform's identity and creating the kind of flagship programming that audiences associate with a particular service,” said Aakash Dasgupta, director and head of IT, ReelDrama.
The emotional pull of a well-told Indian soap—daily, generational storytelling built over years—remains genuinely hard to replicate, according to Rakesh CK, head, Sun Nxt.
“For content platforms, this trend does not signal a decline in premium long-form content, but it is likely to make investment decisions more selective,” said Rajesh Sethi, partner and leader - media entertainment and sports, PwC India. “We expect platforms to be more cautious with mid-budget, mass-market shows and focus spending on either large-scale content or formats that deliver stronger engagement and better economics.”