India, May 30 -- It starts with a swipe. A woman slaps her cheating husband. A man discovers he has 24 hours to live. A child uncovers a family secret. It's dramatic, messy, yet addictive, and all it takes is just 60 seconds.

You're hooked. Before you realise it, you're four episodes deep into a vertical soap opera you didn't even plan to watch. Welcome to the world of microdramas - bite-sized serialised storytelling that merges the emotional pull of daily soaps with the pace of Instagram Reels.

"The trick is the cliffhanger," said Anshuman Misraa, who cofounded microdrama streaming app Reelies. "You end each episode in a way that the viewer has to see what happens next."

What played behind the shift? It's the shrinking attention span....