eNews
NY Cinemas’ first multiplex launched in Delhi NCR at Elan Epic Mall, Gurugram
Mumbai: NY Cinemas, owned by Ajay Devgn, has launched its first multiplex in Delhi NCR at Elan Epic Mall, Sector 70, Gurugram. It stands out as one of the most admirable multiplexes in the region. Elan Epic, a paragon of modern retail, is strategically located at sector 70 on the Southern Peripheral Road (SPR), offering effortless connectivity to the entire city. Just a three-minute drive from NH-8 and with proximity to Golf Course Extension Road, it ensures smooth access.
Ajay Devgn, the four-time National award-winning actor and director, who is extremely passionate about his art, founded NY Cinemas in 2017, a multiplex chain that curates its cinemas with Indian ethos and values and aims to revive the old-world charm of single screens in multiplexes and bring audiences closer to their favourite films and film stars. NY Cinemas stands out as a differentiating player in the cinema industry.
This cinema goes beyond just movie screening by providing an array of premium amenities. Spanning an impressive 46,000 Sq. Ft, this state-of-the-art property features a 5-screen multiplex housing 890 seats, each equipped with the cutting-edge Dolby Atmos sound system, ensuring an immersive audio-visual experience. The cinema is beautifully crafted in three parts viz. The pre-lobby area, main lobby and the ultra-luxurious AMOR lounge. Patrons can experience the elegant lounge area, savour unique creations at the Mocktail Bar, and enjoy culinary delights from the live cooking stations meticulously designed by in-house chefs, making every visit a comprehensive and enjoyable experience. Adding to its distinct appeal is the unique open box office, which enhances the overall ambience and convenience for moviegoers. Among its standout features is the opulent Amor Auditorium, which offers plush recliners for unmatched comfort, allowing guests to relax in style and enjoy VIP treatment while watching their favourite superstars on-screen.
NY Cinemas founder Ajay Devgn stated, “NY Cinemas is expanding and making its way to Gurugram, Delhi NCR. Our endeavour is to create an impeccable experience for audiences watching films at the theatre. I have received a lot of love from my audiences there, and this is my way of giving them the best entertainment experience.”
NY Cinemas CEO Rajeev Sharma said, “NY Cinemas and Elan Group is bringing to Gurgaon the most visual, hatke & filmy experience like no other. Both the companies put their best minds to use and the result is for everyone to witness. Being a differentiating player, I am confident that Delhi / NCR would have not experienced a Classical and Filmy theatre like us till now. Not only the interiors but the audio and video experience too will win the hearts of everyone. “For the Love of Cinema” Ajay’s vision is truly delivered with NY Cinemas Elan Epic.”
Elan Group MD Ravish Kapoor said, “Elan Epic is a premier destination in Gurugram for luxury shopping, dining, and entertainment. The arrival of Delhi NCR’s first NY Cinemas at Elan Epic marks a pivotal moment in our journey to curate an unparalleled lifestyle experience. We are confident that NY Cinemas will seamlessly integrate world-class moviegoing with our existing offerings of luxury retail and fine dining, creating a truly one-stop destination for discerning patrons in Gurugram.”
Sprawling across a majestic four-acre in Gurugram’s Sector 70, Elan Epic redefines the luxury retail experience. This strategically located premium destination, situated right off the Extended Golf Course Extension Road, boasts effortless accessibility via Sohna Road and NH8. Step inside and be captivated by a central atrium featuring a one-of-a-kind, expansive water body – a marvel of modern Indian architecture by UHA London & Architecture by ACPL. It houses renowned brands including Anytime Fitness, Adidas, Bicameral, Intune and Molecule among others. Elan Epic promises an unparalleled blend of luxury, entertainment, and convenience, all under one magnificent roof.
Embracing a vibrant filmy theme, the décor and environment further elevate the luxurious cinema experience and offer patrons a selfie opportunity at every step. With this launch, NY Cinemas expands its presence to 14 cities and has ambitious plans to introduce 20 more screens this year, reinforcing its commitment to providing unparalleled entertainment across the country.
eNews
How short, addictive story videos quietly colonised the Indian smartphone
A landmark Meta-Ormax study of 2,000 viewers reveals a format that is growing fast, paying slowly and consumed almost entirely in secret
MUMBAI: India has a new entertainment habit, and it arrived without anyone really noticing. Micro dramas, those short, cliffhanger-driven episodic stories built for the smartphone screen, have quietly embedded themselves into the daily routines of millions of Indians, discovered not by design but by algorithmic accident, watched not in living rooms but in bedrooms, on commutes and in the five minutes before sleep.
That, in essence, is the finding of a sweeping new audience study released by Meta and media insights firm Ormax Media at Meta’s inaugural Marketing Summit: Micro-Drama Edition. Titled “Micro Dramas: The India Story” and based on 2,000 personal interviews and 50 depth interviews conducted between November 2025 and January 2026 across 14 states, it is the most comprehensive study of the category in India to date, and its findings are striking.
Sixty-five per cent of viewers discovered micro dramas within the last year. Of those, 89 per cent stumbled upon the format through social media feeds, primarily Instagram and Facebook, without ever searching for it. The algorithm did the heavy lifting. Discovery, as the report puts it bluntly, is algorithm-led, not intent-led.
The typical viewer journey begins with accidental exposure while scrolling, moves through a cliffhanger-driven incompletion hook that makes stopping feel unfinished, and is reinforced by algorithmic repetition until habitual consumption sets in. Only then, when a platform asks for an app download or a payment, does the viewer pause. Trust, not content quality, determines what happens next, and many simply return to the free feed rather than pay. It is a funnel with a wide mouth and a narrow neck.
The numbers on consumption tell their own story. Viewers spend a median of 3.5 hours per week watching micro dramas, spread across seven to eight sessions of roughly 30 minutes each, peaking sharply between 8pm and midnight. Daytime viewing is snackable and low-commitment, squeezed into morning commutes, work breaks and coffee pauses. Night-time is where the format truly lives: private, uninterrupted and, for many viewers, socially invisible. Ninety per cent watch alone, compared to just 43 per cent for long-form OTT content. Half the audience watches during their commute, well above the 37 per cent figure for streaming platforms, a direct reflection of the format’s low time investment advantage.
The audience itself breaks into three segments. Incidental viewers, comprising 39 per cent of the total, are passive consumers who stumble in and rarely seek content actively. Intent-building viewers, the largest group at 43 per cent, are beginning to form habits and seek out episodes but remain cautious. High-intent viewers, just 18 per cent, are the ones who download apps, tolerate ads and occasionally pay: skewing male, younger and urban.
What audiences want from the content is revealing. The top three genres are romance at 72 per cent, family drama at 64 per cent and comedy at 63 per cent, precisely the same top three as Hindi general entertainment television. The format rewards emotional familiarity over complexity. Romance in particular thrives because it demands low cognitive investment, needs no elaborate world-building and plays naturally into the private, pre-sleep viewing window where inhibitions lower and emotional intimacy feels safe.
The most-recalled shows, led by Kuku TV titles such as The Lady Boss Returns, The Billionaire Husband and Kiss My Luck, share a common narrative DNA: rich-poor conflict, hidden identities, power imbalances, melodrama and cliffhangers that make stopping feel physically uncomfortable. Predictability, the research warns, is fatal. Each episode must re-earn attention from scratch.
The terminology question is telling. Despite the industry’s embrace of the phrase “micro drama,” viewers have not adopted it. They call the content “short story videos,” “short dramas,” “reels with stories” or simply “serials.” One respondent from Chennai said bluntly that “micro sounds like a scientific word.” The category is at the stage that OTT occupied in 2019 and podcasts in the same year: widely consumed, poorly named and not yet crystallised in the public imagination.
Platform awareness remains alarmingly thin. Only three platforms, Kuku TV at 78 per cent, Story TV at 46 per cent and Quick TV at 28 per cent, have crossed the 20 per cent awareness threshold. The rest languish in single digits. This creates a trust deficit that directly throttles monetisation: viewers who cannot remember which app they used are hardly primed to enter their payment details.
Yet the appetite is clearly there. Sixty-five per cent of viewers watch only Indian content, drawn by the TV-serial familiarity of the storytelling, the comfort of Hindi as a shared language and the sight of actors they half-recognise from decades of television. South languages are rising fast: Tamil, Telugu and Kannada together account for 24 per cent of first-choice viewing. And AI-generated content, still a novelty, has landed better than expected: 47 per cent of viewers call it creative and unique, with only 6 per cent actively rejecting it.
Shweta Bajpai, director, media and entertainment (India) at Meta, called micro drama “a category that is rewriting the rules of Indian entertainment,” adding that the discovery engine being social distinguishes this wave from previous content formats. Shailesh Kapoor, founder and chief executive of Ormax Media, was characteristically measured: the format, he said, is showing “the early signs of becoming a distinct content category” and, given how closely it aligns with natural mobile behaviour, “has the potential to scale very quickly.”
The format’s fundamental mechanics are working. It enters lives quietly, through boredom and a scrolling thumb, and burrows in through incompletion and habit. The challenge now is monetisation: converting a category of highly engaged but deeply anonymous viewers into paying customers who trust the platform enough to hand over their UPI credentials. The story, as any micro-drama writer knows, is only as good as the next cliffhanger. India’s platforms had better have one ready.
