ShareChat's AI dramas are 40% cheaper, but viewers still quit them sooner

ShareChat chief technology officer Nitin Jain told The Economic Times on Tuesday 10 November that AI has cut the cost of a microdrama series by about 40%, against a 70% target, and that parent company Mohalla Tech is hiring creative directors to make AI dramas at scale for its QuickTV app.

Almost none of the numbers are new. The 40%, the 70% target, the share of AI titles and the retention gap were all in Mohalla Tech's own release on 4 August. Three months on, the saving has not moved and viewers still leave AI shows sooner: about half reach episode 20, against about 60% for live action. A cheaper episode only counts if people keep watching it. On the company's own figures, the saving per viewer who reaches episode 20 is closer to 28% than 40%, and the work Jain says still needs people (story, script, cliffhangers) is the work that moves that number.

What is new, and what was already public

The interview does add fresh detail. Jain said the creative directors will use tools that ShareChat's product engineers build by "taking best-in-class tools and packaging and making them accessible," and that most of that engineering will come "through the internal redeployment of our product and engineering." He said the company has no plans to cut jobs because of AI, while adding that the product engineering team is not growing. He also promised "clear AI markers on the content so people know that whatever content they are consuming is actually an AI content."

The numbers, though, are the August numbers. Mohalla Tech's 4 August release, carried by Social Samosa, gave the same saving of approximately 40% against live action, the same Rs 15-20 lakh (about $16,000 to $21,400) cost for a traditional series, the same plan to take AI from nearly 10% of its content to 30-40%, and the same episode-20 completion figures. In August that expansion came with a condition, "subject to audience response, performance benchmarks and production economics," which the interview did not repeat. The release also set the end of 2026 as the deadline for 30-40%, and that is seven weeks away.

Jain said the Rs 100 crore (about $10.7 million) Mohalla Tech committed to AI microdramas is funded from internal cash flow. Inc42 and Entrackr report very different net losses for the year, so we treat that as a company claim.

Checking the 40%

The 40% is the weakest number in the story. It is company-reported, and the Rs 15-20 lakh baseline it is measured against is the release's estimate for traditional Indian microdramas, not ShareChat's own spend. No episode count, runtime or sample comes with it. ShareChat also counts hybrid shows as AI titles. Main Amar Hoon, the June series it calls one of India's first AI-assisted microdramas, combined live action, motion capture, visual effects and generative AI, and the August slate "blends traditional filmmaking with AI-assisted production workflows."

The release also disagrees with itself. Its text says AI currently cuts costs by approximately 40%, while chief executive Ankush Sachdeva's quote in the same document says AI enables "faster experimentation, lower costs by approximately 70%, and greater content scalability." Deloitte, cited by Mint in September, puts a 10-episode season without stars at Rs 2.5-5 lakh, while rival EloElo told ET this month that its average is still Rs 15-17 lakh with most of its workflow AI-enabled.

The retention math

Jain is upbeat about the gap: "Right now there is no reason for me to believe that we will not be able to close this gap instead to surpass this." The figures have not moved since August, though. If an AI series costs 60% of a live-action one and holds five in ten starters to episode 20 against six in ten, the cost per viewer who gets there falls by about 28%, not 40% (our arithmetic, assuming the same number of starters and the same marketing spend). It is still a real saving, but a smaller one, and it shrinks again if the gap widens as AI grows from a tenth of the catalog to a third of it.

What it means for AI creators

• The jobs Jain says still need people are choosing the story, writing the script, placing the cliffhangers and getting the cultural context right, which makes this a brief for writers and directors who can hold an audience for 20 episodes.
• The creative director hiring is real but thin on detail: we found one ShareChat listing for an AI Creative Director in Bengaluru, posted on 3 October on a jobs aggregator, and its text describes design work rather than drama.
• ShareChat makes its own AI dramas while promising tools to creators "both inside and outside," and Jain says its shows only fill gaps in creator content, so the platform is a possible employer, supplier and competitor at once.

Our take

ShareChat deserves credit for publishing a retention number that makes its own AI shows look worse, and AI clearly lowers what an episode costs. But a 40% saving that has not moved in three months, measured against an industry estimate, is a pitch rather than a result. The number to watch is episode 20. When AI titles hold viewers as well as live action does, the saving becomes real, and the people who get it there will be the writers and directors Jain says he still needs.

Timeline

• Date: Tue 10 Dec 2024. Event: ShareChat names Nitin Jain chief technology officer; Source: ShareChat newsroom
• Date: Feb 2025. Event: QuickTV subscription microdrama app launches; Source: Inc42
• Date: June 2026. Event: Main Amar Hoon, a hybrid series mixing live action, motion capture, VFX and generative AI, launches on QuickTV; Source: Pentagan Media release, 4 Aug 2026
• Date: Tue 4 Aug 2026. Event: Mohalla Tech release: up to Rs 100 crore for AI microdramas, 40% saving, 70% target, 10% mix, episode-20 completion about 50% vs 60%; Source: Social Samosa; UNI; ShareChat newsroom
• Date: Wed 23 Sep 2026. Event: Deloitte season price range of Rs 2.5-5 lakh reported; Source: Mint
• Date: Sat 3 Oct 2026. Event: AI Creative Director listing for ShareChat posted; Source: UnoJobs
• Date: Wed 4 Nov 2026. Event: Mohalla Tech year results: revenue Rs 1,016 crore, up about 40%; EloElo says its AI-heavy average is still Rs 15-17 lakh; Source: Fortune India; The Economic Times
• Date: Tue 10 Nov 2026. Event: Jain interview repeats the August figures and adds the hiring line; Source: The Economic Times

Sources and what is unconfirmed: The Economic Times interview with Nitin Jain by Gaurab Dasgupta, 10 Nov 2026, read in full; Mohalla Tech release of 4 Aug 2026 via Social Samosa and the Pentagan Media release page, read in full; UNI, Entrackr, Inc42 and Fortune India coverage of the results; Mint on Deloitte (via our earlier research); the UnoJobs listing. The 40% saving, the 10% mix and the completion figures are company numbers and unaudited. We did not open Mohalla Tech's filing, ShareChat's careers page or the QuickTV app, and we did not contact ShareChat.