HALLYU- THE WAVE THAT SWEPT US OFF OUR FEET

So, despite increasing love for ‘Made in India’ products & availability of content in local languages, what made Indians chase foreign content, ride the Hallyu wave & shift to K-Drama? Let’s find out!

Everyone knows India is obsessed with drama, emotion, & romance. But it’s also known that India is home to vast range of content available in Indian languages. Thus, rising popularity of K-Drama isn’t surprising.

KISS Principle- While K-Drama episodes are rather lengthy, most K-Drama episodes range between 12-20 with a run time average of an hour. This helps in grasping & holding on to attention span of many viewers.

Most K- Dramas end in one season & rather soon, giving viewers a definite closure instead of making them wait unlike most Western content which expects viewers to revisit the story before releasing other seasons.

KISS principle > KISS scenes. Contrary to lot of Indian OTT content, most K-Drama shows don’t show many explicit scenes/ language which makes it comfortable for Indian families who watch shows together.

As per Netflix, between 2019-20, viewership of K-Drama in India rose by 370%! And the availability of Korean content on Indian OTT Platforms had increased by almost 5 times between 2020-22.

K-Drama has shown how Koreans are similar to Indians- importance of family values, social hierarchies, and traditional rituals excite a lot of Indians as they scream “this is so much like India”.

Most shows invest time in building a character. Characters evolve during the course of the show & their past is shown for viewers to understand why the character possibly behaves in a certain way.

For most people, shows are about escaping the routine life. A happy ending of K-Drama shows gives people the exact closure & feeling of contentment that they are looking for!

Given the craze of most Indians to consume K-Drama content, on behalf of the ever-growing K-Drama fan club in India, I quote a very popular phrase- “Ye Dil Maange More” (This heart wants more).