Kuku Technologies is hiring 1,000 people for a new AI-native content unit in Mumbai. The plan is to build the team by the end of this financial year.
The company runs Kuku FM and Kuku TV. It is the biggest name in India’s micro-drama sector, which means serialised short-form video made for phones. Kuku has already hired close to 200 people for the Mumbai unit.
Business Standard first reported the hiring plan on September 8, 2026. Entrackr confirmed the same numbers the same day. Both cited people familiar with the matter. Kuku declined to comment.
The unit brings together three kinds of people. Writers build the story and dialogue. Filmmakers from institutes such as FTII shape the visual direction. Engineers from IITs and NITs build the systems that keep a story consistent across long-running series.
At the centre sits a tool Kuku calls its AI Storytelling Stack. Kuku has built it quietly over years. It draws on billions of user data points and lessons from thousands of past shows.
Kuku is not making separate AI tools. It is building one connected stack across the whole production line.
The cost gap is the point. Producing one minute of micro-drama in China costs more than $100 a minute. Kuku produces similar-quality content for less than $100 a minute. China is the world’s largest micro-drama market and its biggest exporter. Kuku expects its AI unit to cut costs to 30-50% of comparable Chinese production.
The savings come from two places. AI production needs far fewer people and far less time than a normal shoot. Kuku’s systems also need fewer rounds of regeneration than rivals. That regeneration is one of the largest cost lines in AI video.
The result is stark. One person can make about 20 minutes of finished video a day. A traditional shoot day yields roughly one minute of usable footage.
Kuku is aiming high on reach. It expects the AI unit to eventually drive 80-90% of total revenue. It wants to reach more than 100 million people within six months. Output should scale past 2,000 shows in the same period, for India and global markets.
The hiring comes as Kuku moves toward the public market. It has confidentially filed draft IPO papers with SEBI. The issue could be worth up to Rs 3,500 crore. Kuku is targeting a valuation of about $1.8 billion. Kuku TV launched in late 2024.
Kuku frames AI storytelling as an extension of India’s software services edge, now pointed at entertainment. It sees a low-cost, English-proficient talent pool as the country’s advantage. Global demand for personalised, high-volume video is rising fast.
What this means for you: If you build in Indian-language video or short-form content, Kuku has just set a price to beat, under $100 a minute, and is staffing up to defend it before its IPO.
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