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LIONSGATE PLAY ANNOUNCES PREMIERE SLATE OF INTERNATIONAL ORIGINAL SERIES ‘THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE SEASON 3’ on 7 MAY IN INDIA
Lionsgate Play, a premium streaming platform by Starz, is all set to premiere the third season of the critically acclaimed anthology series ‘The Girlfriend Experience Season 3’ from Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. Written and directed by internationally acclaimed German filmmaker Anja Marquardt, executive produced by Philip Fleishman and starring Brazilian-American talent Julia Goldani Telles.
The first and second seasons of The Girlfriend Experience were well received by the audience worldwide and achieved positive reviews from critics.
The third season of ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ is a 10-episode anthology series set amidst the London tech scene and focuses on Iris (Telles), a neuroscience major. As she begins to explore the transactional world of The Girlfriend Experience, Iris quickly learns that her client sessions provide her with a compelling edge in the tech world and vice versa. She then begins to question whether her actions are driven by free will, or something else altogether, and heads down a deep path of exploration.
The series stages chilly drama about the lives of escorts with dual life narratives that is dark and bold with daring and captivating lead female characters, making it the most compelling drama on screen. The official trailer and key art were released out of the third season’s debut at South by Southwest (SXSW) world premiere.
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Applause Entertainment partners with Story TV for premium microdramas
Collaboration to produce and adapt content for mobile-first audiences starting 2026.
MUMBAI: Applause Entertainment just shrunk the drama screen because when stories fit in your pocket, even the biggest plots feel like a quick binge. Applause Entertainment, the Aditya Birla Group-backed content powerhouse behind hits like Black Warrant, The Hunt, Criminal Justice and Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, has entered an exclusive partnership with Story TV, India’s leading microdrama platform, to create a slate of premium short-form series for mobile-first viewers.
Under the agreement, the two companies will co-produce new-age microdramas across multiple genres. Story TV will also acquire rights to Applause’s romantic-thriller series Hello Mini and adapt it into a vertical microdrama format.
Story TV, which launched in July 2025, has quickly become a dominant player in the microdrama space with a library exceeding 1000 titles in romance, thriller, action and family drama across Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The platform ranks as the second most downloaded entertainment app worldwide, according to Sensor Tower data.
Story TV founder and CEO Saurabh Pandey said, “As an early entrant into microdramas in India we are at the forefront of blending storytelling and technology to expand this emerging format into mainstream territory. Our partnership with Applause Entertainment will further expand the audience of microdramas with a focus on premium storytelling that is yet to be seen in the Indian entertainment industry.”
Applause Entertainment chief business officer Prasoon Garg added, “At Applause, our focus has always been on building strong stories across formats. As newer storytelling formats like microdramas gain momentum, we see value in engaging with them through meaningful collaborations. Our unique partnership with Story TV enables us to explore this emerging space alongside a platform that has demonstrated strong understanding of the format and its audiences.”
The tie-up positions both companies to capitalise on the rapid rise of bite-sized, vertical content tailored for smartphone consumption, where attention spans are short and global reach is instant.
In a screen-sized world where stories now race against the scroll, Applause and Story TV aren’t just making microdramas, they’re proving that the smallest screen can still deliver the biggest emotional punch, one vertical episode at a time.
