ShareChat parent bets ₹100 crore on AI to scale microdrama content
The ShareChat parent plans to invest Rs 100 crore this year to scale AI-assisted microdrama production, aiming to cut production costs while expanding its content pipeline
 "ShareChat parent bets ₹100 crore on AI to scale microdrama content")
Mohalla Tech, the parent company of platforms such as ShareChat, Moj and Quick TV, on Wednesday announced a commitment to invest Rs 100 crore during the current calendar year. With this, the company aims to build a pipeline of tech-enabled content, having developed an in-house deep-tech and artificial intelligence (AI) suite over the past few years.
The investment will mark a significant ramp-up in hiring. However, with the scaling of AI-assisted production workflows, it is expected to reduce overall production costs. Currently, traditional microdrama productions in India cost approximately Rs 15-20 lakh per series. With AI-driven workflows now embedded in the production process, the company is working to cut production costs by 70 per cent, thereby widening profit margins as volumes scale.
The company is currently working on a slate of six AI-led microdramas, expected to be released in the first week of August, and plans to add 6-10 titles every month across genres such as mythology, thrillers, science fiction and action.
The move coincides with the platform reaching a significant milestone in its content strategy, recording 850 million daily episodic video plays. The volume has more than doubled over the past six months, and the company anticipates daily episodic plays crossing one billion in the coming quarter.
Quick TV, the company's subscription-only platform, introduced the format in 2025, before it was later integrated into an ad-supported model on Moj and ShareChat. The company said vertical drama has doubled daily time spent per user on Moj and increased it by 35 per cent on ShareChat. It added that the exposure-to-engagement ratio has improved from approximately 45 per cent to more than 74 per cent over the same period.
The ShareChat ecosystem now serves approximately 70 million monthly active users of the format, nearly 70 per cent of India's estimated 100 million microdrama consumers.
Ankush Sachdeva, co-founder and chief executive officer, Mohalla Tech, said: "Content is the fuel, but it is our AI-driven recommendation engine that determines how far it travels. Our aim is not just to produce more content with these investments, but continue to get significantly better at putting the right story in front of the right person at the right moment. That is what drives retention, and retention is what separates a platform driving repeat engagement."