Why South series failed in 2025: Absence of OTT stars, shoestring budget bring down the bar

Even as the Bollywood vs South debate has been tipping the scales in favour of the latter as far as films are concerned, the digital space narrates an entirely different story. The report card of South web series for 2025 paints a disappointing picture, but for a few standout titles, such as Mayasabha, that prevented the year from being a total washout for the industry. Insufficient budgets, lack of proper promotions, trying to emulate the film template in the series format and the reluctance of seasoned actors to commit to the digital space are the reasons that came up as OTTplay delved into why South series has not been able to crack the success formula.

Standout South series of 2025 is...

Despite the combined might of Telugu and Tamil industries along with the more recent Malayalam and Kannada sectors, only a handful of series have even managed to clear the bar and are considered binge-watchable in 2025. The marquee show across South languages in 2025 would be Telugu political thriller Mayasabha, which was able to fully invest in the long format in terms of story and structure, opines film critic and expert Srivatsan Nadathur. Aadhi Pinisetty and Chaitanya Rao play the lead roles in Deva Katta's series, which chronicles the rise of two stalwarts in Andhra politics.

Other notable Telugu titles are Mothevari Love Story, AIR: All India Rankers and Sivarapalli (Panchayat remake), while Arabia Kadali and Devika and Danny have been the major disappointments of the year, Srivatsan adds.

He also points out that regional platforms such as ETV Win have been able to make a mark as they went hyperlocal with their titles such as Constable Kanakam, bringing in the local flavour. Promotions are also another key area that the platform focussed on and invested in as they reached out to the masses.

The same cannot be said about other South series, especially the ones that were released on major streaming platforms. More often than not, the regional or South series’ promotions get wrapped up with teaser-trailers all dropped in the short duration between announcement and release. Film experts also cite that major platforms rarely make space for the regional series on their homepage after the initial buzz. Scam 1992, which was released in 2020, is still on SonyLiv homepage, while the Malayalam series 4.5 Gang or the Telugu thriller Brinda, which marked Trisha’s OTT debut last year, are not to be found on the main page, points out another expert.

There is also a shorter lifespan for South series. Compared to Hindi series, regional content has a specific audience, and the title won’t break even once that audience completes watching.

“Marketing is also very geographically linked,” points out Tamil filmmaker Pushkar, who helmed the Suzhal Seasons 1 and 2 on Prime Video along with his wife and fellow filmmaker Gayathri. However, he insists that it is unfair to compare the relatively ‘new’ South series with the Hindi counterparts. “South is 5-6 years behind Hindi. Netflix started Sacred Games in 2018 and Hindi has developed a much larger audience. This is the starting phase for South, the audience will grow,” says the director of Vikram Vedha. More than 10 Tamil series have been released this year, but only a few such as the recent Kuttram Purindhavan: The Guilty One got a thumbs up from critics.

No OTT stars, shoestring budget, short episodes

There is also a lack of major OTT stars or familiar faces in the South digital space. Fewer film stars have crossed over to the digital space, such as Naga Chaitanya in the Telugu series Dhootha or actor Nivin Pauly’s recent Pharma or Trisha in Brinda; even these end up as one-of-its-kind outings. Nor have the South OTT space been able to get their Jaideep Ahlawat or Huma Qureshi equivalents.

Also read: Pharma review: Nivin Pauly-PR Arun’s series will make you ponder before you pop a pill next time 

Over the last couple of years, the budget too has become kind of compressed. “When the pandemic struck, there were a lot more investments happening. Now the networks realize it is not sustainable and the need to scale back a little bit,” Pushkar explained.

Sources also claim that some of the South series have been produced within a budget of around Rs 1 crore or the production cost of a single episode at an abysmal Rs 50K, which leads to poor production values and further alienates the community of viewers from the digital space. Compare this to a Delhi Crime or The Family Man, which maintain production quality and are cleverly crafted to target the binge-watching community with a solid duration of nearly 50 minutes. This sits in stark contrast with most of the South series that have miserly durations of around 25 minutes as seen even in the popular Kerala Crime Files or the Kannada series Ayyana Mane, which had episodes at a mere 17 minutes.

Srivatsan opines that there is hardly any time or space for character development with such short episodes, and that directly hampers audience engagement. Such half-hearted attempts result in the end product looking like feature-length films that were abruptly cut into episodes, he adds.

Defending the move, Kerala Crime Files director Ahammed Khabeer said that there were apprehensions about whether the Malayalam audience would invest 6 hours binge-watching a series, and settled for a shorter duration for the JioHotstar series. Another Malayalam filmmaker Krishand, who created the series 4.5 Gang, said that he conveyed the story was written such and was able to get close to 50 minutes and 1 hour per episode for his SonyLiv series. Kerala Crime Files Season 2 and 4.5 Gang were the only notable series from Malayalam this year.

But not just duration, the writing does not appear to be tailor-made for a series format either. While some look like a feature movie with ‘episodic intervals’, others seem to suffer from a serious TV serial influence as seen in the Malayalam horror comedy Inspection Bungalow or Kannada title Ayyana Mane. The latter was made by Shruthi Naidu Productions, which backs TV serials, and the Zee5 series reportedly worked for that audience. The second 2025 Kannada series Shodha is seen as an improvement over its original Hindi series Khoj, and makes one wonder what a better budget could have done to further elevate the show. Maarigallu, which sought to imitate the epic film Kantara Chapter 1, too, did not perform as expected on Zee5, an official had earlier said. Experts point out that there is an audience for regional series, but the makers ostensibly stick to the serial format.

There are also allegations that some of the mainstream platforms give space to a Malayalam or Kannada series, just for representation's sake.

However, Pushkar points out that the platforms are seeking to expand their South market. Despite the lacklustre performance, an official from JioHotstar insists that the reception for the South series has been good. During the recent South Unbound event, JioHotstar promised an investment of a whopping Rs 4000 crore and announced several new titles across Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, but again Kannada was ominously left out. Streaming giant Netflix has also literally set up a base in Hyderabad and has already announced six new Telugu and Tamil originals.

Micro-dramas to define streaming future

Apart from language expansion, OTTs seek to experiment with formats other than series as well. With ever-increasing consumption of videos in vertical format, by Gen Z in particular, streaming platforms seek to tap into the market with micro-dramas that will have a duration of 1, 2 to 5 minutes. There have been micro-dramas, including by Kannada actress Teju Belawadi, that are gaining popularity, but these are expected to become the focus of OTTs. Zee5 has already tied up with the micro-drama app Bullet, which was launched with as many as 34 one-minute videos across languages, including across south Indian languages.

South series FAQs

Q. Which are the top South web series of 2025?

A. The Telugu titles Mayasabha, Mothevari Love Story, AIR: All India Rankers, and Constable Kanakam, Malayalam series Kerala Crime Files S2, & 4.5 Gang and the Tamil thriller series Kuttram Purindhavan: The Guilty One are among the top South web series of 2025. All these series are also available to stream on OTTplay Premium.