When 1 minute gets too hot

Timeless tropes and a hint of scandal raising spice level and popularity of vertical dramas

- SREYA DEB

AS THE POPULARITY of vertical dramas surges across the entertainment space, a genre that may have fallen by the wayside of popular culture has found a place on the mobile screens.

Soap-opera-like plotlines with telenovela-esque _ spectacular romances, marked with suggestive dialogues between actors and never-ending eye contact that supposedly speaks a thousand words — this is the type of content that is being produced for the viewing pleasure of the mobile audience.

Holding your attention for no longer than a minute and a half, these vertical dramas will tickle the fantasies of the Mills and Boon enthusiasts who would turn to Wattpad, Fanfiction, and teen romance novels for their fill. Now available in a much more palatable and accessible format, spicy romance dramas are quickly becoming a widely viewed phenomenon on social media platforms such as Instagram. Not only are Instagram channels themselves creating these vertical dramas, they are also using the platform to advertise for these spicy episodic series — teasing the audiences with reels and trailers before release, directing them to the accounts or subscriber-based vertical drama apps where they are streamed.