PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE
The Supreme Court’s recent intervention against obscene and sexually explicit content on OTT platforms was meant to send a strong signal to India’s digital entertainment ecosystem. In April 2025, acting on a petition filed by former Central Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar, the apex court issued notices to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Ullu and ALTBalaji over allegations of obscene and perverse content circulating on their platforms. Soon after, the government banned 25 OTT platforms accused of hosting vulgar and sexually explicit material.
The message appeared unambiguous: the era of consequence-free digital content was over.
Yet, a rapidly growing segment of India’s entertainment economy appears to have absorbed none of those lessons — the emerging microdrama and short-video streaming industry.
A quick scroll through Instagram or Facebook today reveals paid advertisements from platforms such as Story TV and Quick TV promoting content that heavily relies on sexual innuendo, suggestive themes and provocative storytelling designed for algorithmic virality.
Quick TV, operated by ShareChat’s parent company Mohalla Tech, is currently promoting a series titled Main Brahmachari Tu Kanyakumari. The promotional material depicts intimate positioning between characters alongside dialogues such as “Jo karna hai kariyein naa,” a phrase widely interpreted as carrying explicit sexual undertones within the scene’s context. The advertisement ends with a direct call-to-action urging viewers to “Start Free Trial Now.”
This is not incidental user-generated content slipping through moderation filters. These are paid promotions approved and distributed across major social media platforms to mass audiences, including minors and unsuspecting users.
Similarly, Story TV, operated by Eloelo, is promoting a series titled Mafia of Wasseypur, borrowing heavily from the cultural recall of the acclaimed Gangs of Wasseypur franchise while packaging violence, power dynamics and sexually suggestive storytelling into short-form episodic content engineered for binge consumption.
The regulatory framework that formed the basis of the Supreme Court petition against OTT platforms applies equally to these emerging platforms.
Under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, OTT services are classified as “online curated content providers” and are required to implement age classifications, content descriptors, parental controls and access restrictions for mature content. Additionally, provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act remain applicable irrespective of whether content is delivered in long-format episodes or short-form vertical videos.
Legal experts argue that the format of distribution cannot become a loophole to bypass regulatory obligations.
The larger concern flagged by the Supreme Court was not merely obscenity in isolation, but the normalisation of explicit themes through repeated digital exposure. Critics argue that content portraying coercion as romance or sensationalising predatory behaviour as entertainment contributes to precisely the kind of cultural erosion the court sought to address.
What further complicates the issue is discoverability. Unlike traditional OTT platforms that require intentional app downloads and age-verification processes, microdrama platforms increasingly push promotional clips directly through social media advertising ecosystems, allowing such content to surface organically in the feeds of minors and general audiences without meaningful safeguards.
The government has already acted against 25 OTT platforms. The question regulators and courts may now need to confront is whether the same standards will extend to the rapidly expanding short-video entertainment ecosystem — or whether microdrama platforms will continue operating in a regulatory grey zone despite broadcasting similar content to even wider audiences.
As India’s digital entertainment economy evolves, the debate is no longer limited to long-format OTT platforms. It is now shifting toward the algorithm-driven world of short-form streaming, where content moderation, audience protection and platform accountability remain increasingly blurred.
