Microdramas are moving into a new phase of global expansion, industry leaders said at the WAVES Film Bazaar, pointing to evolving genres, rising male viewership, institutional support in Europe and surging demand across India and Latin America.
Moderated by Variety’s Naman Ramachandran, panelists Tarun Sawhney, president, APAC, Shorts TV, Vijay Koshy, president, TVF and director of Seriesly Berlin, Dennis Ruh broke down the booming global market and discussed India’s acceleration into the space.
Ramachandran opened with data showing China’s microdrama market surpassing theatrical revenues, hitting an estimated $7 billion compared to a $6 billion box office, with projections of $26 billion by 2030. He positioned India as a rapidly awakening “sleeping giant”. Asked to define the form, Ruh described microdramas as “a sub-genre of the vertical drama” – two-to-three-minute episodes, often running 60–70 chapters per season, built around cliff-hangers and addictive progression loops. Platforms such as ReelShort and MyDrama, he noted, “provide the first 10 to 20 episodes for free, then users buy tokens, play games or watch ads,” enabling some operators to generate “over $1 million per day.”
Sawhney emphasised the behaviour shift driving this surge. “Our attention spans are dwindling… microdramas are a lifestyle now, ingrained in our entertainment appetite.” He disputed higher budget estimates, saying the majority of micro-dramas “are in the range of $50,000 to $60,000,” with per-minute costs dipping as low as $100 in India and China.
Koshy framed microdramas as “bite-sized storytelling,” but acknowledged TVF has yet to enter the category. “We’ve been cautious,” he said. “Slice-of-life and satire are much tougher to do in the shorter form.”
As genres evolve, romance and CEO tropes still dominate but Sawhney said there is now a demand for thrillers and horrors too, especially with the surge in male audiences from 10% to nearly 30% in some markets. LATAM and Europe are diversifying fastest, with Ruh noted Germany’s first publicly funded microdrama based on a historic tale was created for TikTok, signalling institutional acceptance. “This shows an openness to bring more local stories to those platforms, and I think that’s also the future, how it will evolve in Europe, for example,” he said.
Ramachandran pointed out that microdramas operate outside established platforms, making customer acquisition and retention expensive. Ruh confirmed that marketing spend “reduces profit,” while Sawhney added a startling ratio: “For every million dollars they spend on content, they spend 10 million on marketing.”
The panel also tackled AI’s accelerating role and responded to the question: Are microdramas here for the long haul? All the speakers agreed that as long as phones with vertical screens exist, microdramas are “here to stay.”
WAVES Film Bazaar is the market component of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa.