Anshita Kulshrestha, Founder of TukTuki Entertainments sheds light on how micro-dramas are testing Bharat’s discretionary spend. While the Indian OTT landscape has long been a battleground for deep-pocketed global giants chasing long-term subscriptions, a quieter, more tactical shift is taking place in the palm of the Tier-2 and Tier-3 consumer. Enter the micro-drama - 1-minute, vertically-shot serialized stories that are doing to digital content what the shampoo sachet did to FMCG: making premium accessible through micro-transactions.

At the forefront of this shift is TukTuki, a homegrown platform that has bypassed the traditional monthly subscription model in favor of a ‘pay-per-episode’ architecture. With individual episode unlocks priced as low as ₹29, the app is providing a real-time heat map of discretionary spending across India’s emerging middle class.