India's microdrama startups bet on AI to slash production costs by 75%

India’s microdrama startups are racing to build a new content category, and artificial intelligence sits at the center of every bet. From slashing production costs to activating decades of archived TV content, AI is reshaping both the supply and economics of vertical storytelling. As competition intensifies with large OTT players experimenting with the format, emerging platforms are using AI as the differentiator that makes microdramas cheaper, faster, and more scalable than anything traditional studios can match.

Reinventing Production Economics with AI

For many founders, the biggest unlock is the fact that AI makes creativity exponentially cheaper.

Dashverse, an AI-native microdrama platform with over 10 million cumulative installs, says its model changes the fundamentals of content creation.

A spokesperson explains, “Traditionally, a 90-minute microdrama costs anywhere from 40 to 50 lakh rupees and can take five to ten weeks from script to screen. Our AI-driven virtual studio slashes that to just 10 to 12 lakh rupees and collapses the timeline to under three weeks.”

The company already has 2 million monthly active users and is fully subscription-led for now. While incumbents like Moj and MX Player have experimented with vertical video, Dashverse argues that the opportunity is larger than current metrics suggest. “We see a massive, underserved demand for high-quality, microdrama content, and our technology gives us a unique and scalable path to meeting it.”

To keep up with demand, they plan to release more than 30 new exclusive titles every month. “AI microdramas are not an experiment for us. They will contribute over 50 percent of our total revenue by the end of this year,” the spokesperson adds.

AI as the New Creative Engine

Beyond cost efficiency, platforms believe AI expands creative boundaries.

“AI allows us to take risks on genres like sci-fi or fantasy, which would be prohibitively expensive otherwise,” the Dashverse team says. Their in-house tool Frameo AI is already being used to create content and is set to be opened to the public by year-end. “The one-person production house is no longer a theoretical concept. It is here.”

The platform is also experimenting with an ad-light, freemium layer designed for AI-native content. “We are re-imagining how ads are served so they feel less intrusive and more ingrained in the story without compromising user experience,” the company says.

A Glimpse Into AI Production Workflows: Dev Ya Manav

One of the clearest examples of end-to-end AI-led production comes from QuickTV’s newly launched mythological fantasy series Dev Ya Manav, where an entire drama was created without a single human actor or physical set.

The team began by developing the synopsis and script like any traditional series. But instead of casting real actors, they generated AI characters and iterated through multiple rounds of visual sketching to achieve polished, Indian-essence designs. Because AI video tools often hallucinate human features, every character was labeled (“Ashwin,” “Angira”) to maintain identity consistency across scenes. Entire locations — from heavenly palaces to ancient temples — were visualized through AI-generated environments. Costume references were created using Midjourney for both heaven and earth settings, and scene numbers were embedded in prompts to preserve continuity.

Dialogue was crafted using voice modulation and character-specific voices trained on ElevenLabs. Each scene was then broken into shots with prompts written for visuals, actions, and lipsync — for example: “Angira in red sari, walking down the stairs, lipsyncing the dialogue.” Midjourney references were integrated to enhance fidelity and style. The final stage involved sound design, background score, and SFX — resulting in Dev Ya Manav, the first fully AI-generated short drama series on QuickTV. The turnaround time was half of what a real human shoot would require.

This project showcases exactly how microdrama platforms are using AI not only to reduce production time and cost, but to unlock genres like mythology and fantasy that traditionally demand heavy budget and visual effects.

Microdrama Studios Push Toward Originals and Habit-led Storytelling

StoryTV is also doubling down on AI-enabled content workflows while maintaining a strong focus on original stories.

“At StoryTV we aim to make microdramas a daily habit for millions of Indians,” says Saurabh Pandey, Founder and CEO. “What sets StoryTV apart is our intense focus on originals that are character-driven and rooted in Indian sensibilities. While most platforms replicate globally popular plots, Indian audiences want dramas in their own style.”

StoryTV recently raised its Series B and says it is well-capitalized to compete. Already, nearly 40 percent of its audience are women, and users spend more than 70 minutes a day on the app. “This is a strong signal of habit-forming engagement, which translates to paying subscribers,” Pandey adds.

Investors See Microdrama as the Next Mobile-native Category

Venture investors say microdrama sits at a powerful intersection of format innovation, monetization, and AI-enabled supply.

“Micro-drama is a real category opportunity,” says Mayank Jain, Principal at Stellaris Venture Partners, an investor in Flick TV, Goodscore, Peeko, Outzidr, Punch and Cirkla. “Short-form vertical video adoption has exploded with reels and shorts, but what’s missing is emotionally engaging, story-led content. Microdrama fills that gap.”

Jain says Stellaris backed Flick TV because the team blended customer acquisition, engineering and AI, and content operations. “AI dramatically lowers production cost and drives scale. The rise of micro-transactions on UPI also creates a new monetisation path.”

He sees microdrama as a complement, not a competitor, to YouTube Shorts or OTT. “It combines the snackable vertical format users love with serialized storytelling typical of TV and web series.”

On revenue models, Jain is bullish on micropayments. “Pay-per-episode or micropayment and subscriptions are strong revenue avenues. Ads will exist but will be a minority initially. Sustainable economics depend on retention, driven by content freshness and velocity.”

AI is also Activating India’s Massive Content Archives

Some startups are using AI to unlock entire libraries of existing content.

“Our latest offering takes long-form dramas and converts them into microdramas for social platforms,” says Suparna Singh, CEO and co-founder of Frammer AI, whose company works with large entertainment networks. “If the input is a one-hour episode, our AI automatically converts it into around ten standalone one-minute vertical episodes.”

This is not mere clipping. “We are editing it. Archival content is being activated. Networks have 40 to 50,000 hours of old dramas that can’t be streamed linearly anymore. Converting them into vertical microdramas allows them to find a new audience cost-efficiently,” she adds.

On AI-generated actors, Suparna says acceptance will depend on quality. “Generative models are improving rapidly. Already many ad films are entirely AI-generated and you can’t tell unless you look very closely.”

Writers Are Using AI to Keep Up with Production Velocity

Scriptwriters say AI is becoming unavoidable because of brutal turnaround times. “I use AI while writing scripts because it’s faster,” says writer Sohini Mukherjee. “When I have to submit scripts for 60 or 45 episodes in just three days, manually it’s impossible. I use AI for speed, then I edit the output and humanise it, because AI does not write like a human.”

She adds that AI is good for speed but cannot mimic lived experience. “AI only has information. It doesn’t have emotion.”

Can Microdramas Become Mainstream Entertainment?

Most creators believe the category will grow without cannibalising TV or OTT.

“Every format has its own audience,” Mukherjee says. “People who watch web series will keep watching web series. People who like TV will watch TV. Microdramas will also have their own consistent audience.”

Investors agree that microdrama has mass potential.

“The market will support multiple players, and over time consolidation might lead to a handful of winners,” Jain says.

Across founders, writers and investors, one theme stands out: AI is not just a tool for microdrama, it is the infrastructure on which the entire category is being built.

Where large OTT players are still experimenting with vertical dramas, microdrama platforms argue that their AI-first models give them a competitive advantage in speed, cost, and creative flexibility. Or as Dashverse puts it, “While they are dipping their toes in the water, we are building the entire ocean.”