On a lazy Sunday evening, you open Instagram. You are expecting dance reels and pet videos, but something else catches your eye―a teary girl in a cab. “I never thought he’d betray me,” she says. The driver glances in the mirror, tense. A phone rings. And then, the screen goes black. ‘Episode 2 tomorrow,’ it says. You just watched a drama. In 47 seconds.
Welcome to the era of quick and punchy micro-dramas, a storytelling format designed for the distracted, dopamine-hungry generation. These short dramas are typically up to five minutes long and are flooding platforms like Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Moj, Josh, and Amazon miniTV, captivating millions as they seek a quick ‘rush’ while waiting in traffic, chilling during lunch break or binge-scrolling between classes or meetings. Although this format isn’t new―with platforms like Snapchat experimenting with short-form storytelling years ago―it has come into its own in the last couple of years, say experts.
The reasons are many. One, attention spans are shrinking. In a podcast with The American Psychology Association, Dr Gloria Mark, a psychologist and the chancellor’s professor of informatics at the University of California Irvine, says that back in 2004, her team found the average attention span on any screen to be two-and-a-half minutes, but through the years it became shorter. “So around 2012 we found it to be 75 seconds. And then in the last five or six years, we found it to average about 47 seconds,” she says.
We scroll fast and need instant gratification. Also, the fact that content consumption is now mobile-first has added immensely to the shortening of attention spans. Unlike traditional TV or even OTT binge sessions, many viewers today, especially among Gen Z, are watching videos vertically on their phones. Most important, it is the platforms themselves that are facilitating this: Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have algorithms that reward creators who can hook users within a few seconds, and the shorter the video, the higher the reward in reach. As per statistics, the shareability of short content increases its chances of reaching a wider audience. The rapid adoption of 5G is enabling faster video consumption, making short-form content even more accessible. As per data from Firework.com, an AI powered video-commerce platform, short-form videos get 2.5 times more engagement than long-form videos. Fifty-six per cent of videos created by businesses are now under two minutes. Videos under 90 seconds have a 50 per cent viewer retention rate.
The micro-drama, though short, has a mega impact. “In films, we have a start, a middle and an end stretching over two-and-a-half to three hours,” says scriptwriter Shilpa Srivastava. “Then we moved on to series, with five to ten episodes of one hour each. But here the format is such that the ‘shock’ value can be explored more. In these times of instant gratification it is shock that is driving marketing and advertising campaigns and billboards, so the shock value is the new emotion we are trying to monetise with this micro content.” She says that one cannot explore “romantic build-up and slow-burn melodrama” in such bite-sized time frames. “The entire format itself becomes a cliffhanger,” she says. Her opinion is echoed by content creators who believe that the average viewer must get hooked in the first three seconds. Which is why many of these micro-dramas often begin with a scream, a slap, or a scandal.
Short and sweet: Microdramas on video platforms FilterCopy and Amazon MX Player.
Short and sweet: Microdramas on video platforms FilterCopy and Amazon MX Player.
Short and sweet: Microdramas on video platforms FilterCopy and Amazon MX Player.
Short and sweet: Microdramas on video platforms FilterCopy and Amazon MX Player.
But is this just a passing fad or is there really a cultural shift? Ace cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee, who describes himself as old-school, says that the sad part is that “just as quickly as the content is consumed, it is also forgotten”. “People have no time or patience to let the moment seep in,” he says. “Everyone is so hungry to consume content that watching reels has become therapeutic. For such an audience, these micro-dramas are perfect―they neither take time to make nor to watch.” While Chatterjee himself would never “even dream of giving up the full-fledged film format”, he says his son Ishaan, a Gen Z-er, finds the idea “very exciting”.
The market for micro-dramas in China alone is upwards of $6 billion, while in the US, where it is a relatively new phenomenon, the market is reportedly more than $1 billion. So what does a typical micro-drama look like? These are mobile-first, reel-sized, binge-worthy episodes, each barely two minutes long, with the story spanning 50 to 100 episodes. Most are soap operas or romantic K-drama-style sagas. Typically, the first five or 10 episodes are offered free and then the rest charged a minuscule amount. There are no A-list actors or fancy sets; these are just raw stories shot fast and cheap.
Platforms like Kuku TV, ReelSaga and Reelies have recorded lakhs of downloads for these micro-dramas. Amazon MX Player entered the race with its own vertical drama format―MX Fatafat―and now, the legacy media is catching up, too. Zee Entertainment invested in Bullet, India’s first micro-drama app. Indian short video apps like FilterCopy, Moj and Josh are so popular that they’ve partnered with production houses to create reels. Micro-dramas, say experts, might be heralding a cultural shift―a new grammar of storytelling where scenes are tight, dialogues dramatic, and plot twists come in a jiffy.
Most creators work with shoestring budgets―shooting on phones, using real locations, and casting friends or influencers. But the lack of gloss is part of the appeal. “It feels more real than Netflix,” says a college student from Pune who binge-watches breakup dramas on YouTube Shorts. “Like, it could be your own story.” Anaita Dongurkar, who left her banking job to become a full-time freelance short video content maker, says the rise of micro-dramas has democratised storytelling. “All I have is a smartphone, some basic editing skills, and a nose for drama to write scripts and either commission others to work on them or do some basic shoot myself,” she says. “The content usually is simple, revolving around college romances, cheating partners, office drama, mother-in-law conspiracies or mysterious disappearances. It is the same formula that has worked for daily soaps and true crime.”
Of course, not everyone’s impressed. Critics argue that micro-dramas sacrifice nuance and depth for cheap thrills. The plots are often formulaic and there’s a sameness to many of these reels. Also, can creators continue churning out dramatic content at this pace? Monetisation is also a challenge―most creators rely on brand deals or ad revenue, which may not be consistent. Yet, many feel that dismissing micro-dramas as shallow is short-sighted. “The big change that has happened is really about digital video consumption, fully revolutionising the way people consume content, the places they consume content and the format they consume content,” says Amogh Dusad, director and head of content, Amazon MX Player. “Micro-dramas play a key role in that aspect as a response to emerging consumer need.... There is a lot of untapped potential and the trend will continue to emerge stronger in the coming time.”