AI tools are reshaping India’s fast-growing microdrama market

AI allows studios to produce and test multiple titles before committing capital to larger productions, according to Saurabh Kushwah, co-founder and chief product and technology officer at Bullet Microdrama. Beyond creation, Trinetra also tracks how AI-generated content performs to identify successful formats and guide future commissioning, Kushwah added.

The company has not disclosed project-level cost or time savings, citing differences in genre, cast, locations and the extent of AI use. Its platform follows a credit-based pricing model, with packages ranging from 330 credits for ₹668 to 30,000 credits for ₹47,720.

To put those software credits into context, traditional production still carries a substantial baseline cost. Bullet Microdrama previously told Mint that a full microdrama series, including distribution and social media support, costs around ₹18-20 lakh to produce. A month-long campaign typically costs ₹30-40 lakh, depending on the scale.

Despite the speed offered by AI tools, the platform maintains that tech does not replace creators. At Bullet, AI is a ‘production multiplier’, but the creative team retains decision-making authority, Kushwah said. Human judgement remains necessary for the central idea, script approval, casting, performance direction, final edits and decisions on rights, safety and compliance.

A report by strategy consulting firm Redseer projects that India's microdrama market will grow from around ₹2,300 crore in FY26 to ₹23,500-25,500 crore by FY32. Advertising revenue from microdramas could rise from ₹24 crore in FY26 to ₹5,000-5,500 crore by FY32, it said.

Long-form narrative AI

Other microdrama players are taking different approaches to AI-driven production. EloElo Group, which runs microdrama platform Story TV, has introduced Dolphin AI through a phased early-access programme. Users can access it with an invite code or join a waitlist. Pricing remains undecided as the company develops the product and assesses enterprise use cases.

“The first job of AI in the content landscape is actually a very basic one: don’t break the story,” said Saurabh Pandey, founder and chief executive of EloElo Group.

Story TV has more than 5,000 original dramas and tests over 100,000 creative variations every month, according to the company. “Until now, AI video has largely been generated shot by shot. That works well for a five-second or 10-second clip, but it becomes a very different problem when you are telling a story across 50 or 100 episodes,” Pandey said.

Dolphin AI’s ‘World Lock’ and ‘Film Studio’ features maintain consistency across characters, settings and other story elements. Users can also feature in the storylines they generate. Pandey said the technology could make mythology, period drama and fantasy less expensive to produce and fit within microdrama budgets.

Visual effects and translation

Meanwhile, regional platforms are also tapping AI for specific purposes. KadhaiShorts, a Tamil microdrama platform from Maran Group, currently uses AI mainly for visual effects. It is exploring dubbing, subtitles, translation and language adaptation but does not yet produce fully AI-generated series, said chief executive Sabarish Venkat.

AI could help smaller production teams attempt stories that would otherwise have been too expensive, Venkat said. A Viking mythology series set in a science-fiction world, for instance, would require spending on sets, costumes, locations and casting. AI could reduce the cost of creating and testing such elaborate visual settings.

AI-assisted dubbing and language adaptation could also take KadhaiShorts’ Tamil stories to other language markets. However, this requires adapting slang, humour and colloquial expressions rather than translating dialogue word for word, Venkat said. “The goal is to make a story feel native to the audience watching it,” he added.

However, simply producing more content does not guarantee an audience. “Infinite content does not mean infinite attention,” Pandey said. Story TV uses audience behaviour to decide which of its more than 100,000 monthly creative variations merit further investment. As AI speeds up experimentation, more stories will compete for limited audience attention, he said, adding that platforms will need to curate content and maintain quality to earn viewers’ trust.

Content discovery & ads

AI is also changing how viewers discover content. ZEE5 has developed Clips in partnership with Google Cloud. The inbuilt feature uses AI to identify engaging moments in films and shows and turn them into short, vertical videos for mobile viewing. Viewers can swipe through the clips to discover titles before watching them in full.

ZEE5 is exploring how AI can personalise content discovery, said Tejkarran Singh Bajaj, business head for ZEE5 India, AI and innovation. The same title could be presented through humour, suspense or emotion, depending on a viewer’s interests, viewing history and language preferences. AI identifies these moments by analyzing narrative, visual and audio cues.

Clips could also become an advertising format, Bajaj said. Brands could create vertical videos for viewers browsing content, with placements tailored to language, genre and audience interest. This could give advertisers another way to reach consumers and create an additional revenue stream for ZEE5, he added.

Rudrani Chattopadhyay

Rudrani Chattopadhyay is a Mumbai-based journalist. At Mint, she covers the creator economy and education, with a particular interest in the smaller trends taking shape across digital media. She believes every trend has a story behind it and likes digging into the people, ideas and shifts that sit beneath what is immediately visible. Before joining Mint, she worked at The Statesman in Kolkata, where she started as an intern before working as a sub-editor on the print news desk. She holds a master’s degree in Media Science and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Calcutta. Rudrani keeps too many tabs open in her mind, is a raging maximalist and has a soft spot for historical fiction and feminist literature. She is happiest when in the company of coffee.