Angel One and TVF launch cricket-themed microdrama 12th Man

MUMBAI: Not every cricket story is about the player hitting the winning six. Sometimes, the most interesting innings belongs to the one carrying the drinks. Angel One is stepping off the boundary rope and into the storytelling game with 12th Man, a new microdrama series created in partnership with The Viral Fever (TVF). The 15-episode show, starring Anshuman Rai, marks what the company describes as the first original microdrama by a major Indian broking platform, signalling how brands are increasingly chasing cultural relevance rather than just advertising visibility.

Rolled out across the Instagram handles of Angel One, TVF and Micronama, the series has been built entirely for India’s short-form, scroll-heavy, mobile-first audience where stories now compete with memes, match clips and endless reels for attention spans measured in seconds.

But instead of pushing financial jargon or investment tips, 12th Man takes the emotional route.

At the centre of the story is Mohit Kumar, a promising cricketer whose dreams of playing professional cricket collapse after a career-ending injury. Once talented enough for Ranji-level cricket, Mohit finds himself stuck on the sidelines as the permanent “12th man” close enough to the action to feel it, but never fully part of the playing XI.

It is a setup many young Indians may recognise beyond the cricket field.

The series leans into themes of missed opportunities, quiet resilience and self-worth, exploring what it means to feel like a spectator in your own life while everyone else appears to move ahead. Instead of turning the story into a dramatic comeback saga, the narrative focuses on reinvention on discovering that contribution sometimes matters more than centre stage.

And that emotional positioning is precisely what makes the campaign stand out.

Brands have long used cricket for sponsorship visibility, celebrity endorsements and match-day integrations. Angel One, however, appears to be betting on something more layered: storytelling rooted in cricket culture rather than simply attached to it.

The timing also reflects a wider shift in digital entertainment. Microdramas bite-sized narrative series designed for vertical screens and fast consumption have exploded globally into a multi-billion-dollar content category. In India, where Instagram reels and short video storytelling increasingly shape youth culture, brands are beginning to view these formats as cultural playgrounds rather than just marketing channels.

Angel One is among the first financial services brands in the country attempting to enter that space through original fiction.

Angel One chief marketing officer Zameer Kochar said the series was designed around themes of resilience and self-belief that resonate strongly with younger audiences. TVF president Vijay Koshy added that the collaboration aimed to create a storytelling format native to today’s mobile-first generation while retaining emotional authenticity.

The move also fits into Angel One’s larger cricket playbook.

Earlier this IPL season, the company launched Cricket Park, an immersive cricket-themed amusement experience in Mumbai that brought together around 300 creators, influencers and cricket enthusiasts. Instead of limiting itself to sponsorship visibility as an associate partner of the Tata IPL between 2024 and 2028, the brand has steadily expanded into experiences and culture-led engagement.

With 12th Man, that strategy now moves fully into entertainment territory.

For TVF, meanwhile, the collaboration reflects how branded storytelling itself is evolving. Rather than interrupting content, brands increasingly want to become the content especially in ecosystems where audiences can instantly scroll away from anything that feels overly promotional.

And perhaps that is the real pitch here.

Because 12th Man is not trying to sell stocks through cricket. It is trying to sell emotion through storytelling with cricket simply acting as the language young India already understands fluently.