Epic Studios and Rusk Media to build India’s largest vertical drama library

India’s content industry has found its next obsession, and it is vertical. Epic Studios has struck a partnership with Rusk Media to produce fifty original vertical drama series, a bet that short-form, mobile-first storytelling is not a passing fad but the next big battleground for eyeballs. The shows will stream exclusively on Alright! TV, Rusk Media’s fledgling OTT platform, and span genres from mythology to mystery, thriller and romance, a spread wide enough to suggest neither party is willing to leave any demographic behind.

The logic of the tie-up is straightforward. Epic Studios brings a decade of experience producing premium content across television, streaming and film, while Rusk Media brings a digital-first distribution engine built specifically for vertical consumption. Combine the two and you get, at least on paper, a vertically integrated machine for churning out IP at a pace traditional studios cannot match. Aditya Pittie, managing director of The Epic Company, was characteristically unsubtle about the ambition: “Vertical dramas are experiencing massive global and domestic growth, reshaping how content is consumed. For us, this partnership is about driving true scale and building the biggest library of owned vertical-drama IPs in the country. A slate of 50 original series is just the beginning, by the middle of next year, we aim to have over 250+ titles, and becoming one of the largest independent IP owners in this space. Partnering with Rusk Media and Alright! TV creates a seamless, one-stop ecosystem that blends powerful storytelling with unprecedented volume.”

What makes this worth watching is the scale of intent rather than the novelty of the format. Vertical dramas, short episodes designed for phone screens and binge consumption in idle moments, have already proven their commercial appeal in China and are now being tested aggressively across South Asia. Karanvir Sofat, co-founder and chief revenue officer at Rusk Media, framed the partnership in equally ambitious terms: “This partnership is a reflection of Alright! TV’s mission to create high quality content for new age Indian viewers. Epic has been a long-standing partner and this slate collaboration reinforces the commitment to deliver premium, engaging entertainment for digital audiences, that combine compelling storytelling with the pace and accessibility today’s viewers expect.”

The real story here is one of IP ownership. Rather than licensing content or relying on one-off commissions, both companies are explicitly building owned libraries, betting that whoever accumulates the largest catalogue of vertical drama IP first will hold a durable advantage as the format matures and monetisation models, subscriptions, advertising, possibly even international syndication, start to solidify. If the 250-title target is hit on schedule, Epic Studios and Rusk Media will have moved from strategic partners to genuine market leaders in barely eighteen months, a pace that ought to worry slower moving rivals.