Brothers, cousins and the grandfather: The story of a YouTube channel

Five youngsters of a family in Chinnaveeramangalam in Pudukkottai district had almost packed their bags to fly out of the country in search of greener pastures. But then an idea struck Subramani, 32, that prompted everyone to abandon their plans and launch a YouTube channel to take village cooking to a different level altogether.

The youngsters roped in their grandfather, 75-year-old Periyathambi, who had been cooking for marriages and other events in the district for about five decades, for their channel. Never in their dreams, the youngsters and Periyathambi thought their channel will turn into a sensation on the internet – all credit goes to the way they cook authentic Chettinad dishes in a serene atmosphere – near a river, or inside agricultural fields or farms.

In early July, Village Cooking Channel crossed the 10 million subscribers mark on YouTube -- a rare feat for a cookery channel, that too in a regional language. In the next fortnight, the channel attracted 1 million more subscribers – at last count, the channel had 11.6 million subscribers.

“We launched the channel due to struggles that we faced in our lives. All of us had decided to leave the village and work in foreign countries to earn good money like many others from our area. But something stopped us, and that has brought us all the name and fame. When we launched, all we aimed was to reach the one million mark,” V Subramanian, the man behind the channel, told DH.

And when the channel got the Diamond button from YouTube, they celebrated their success by donating Rs 10 lakh to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund (CMPRF), from their earnings.

From struggling to meet ends to donating now -- the youngsters' life turned upside down for the good as their channel’s subscriber base grew each passing day. And ever since they began cooking, the group has been sending the food to orphanages and old age homes in Pudukkottai.

But what made the videos uploaded by the Village Cooking Channel go viral? From fish found in lakes and ponds to crabs, lobsters, mutton, chicken and winged termites – Periyathambi and his grandchildren became famous on the internet for their non-vegetarian dishes.

The group’s authentic way of cooking by using hand-ground spices, their simple way of dressing – the team comes clad in shirts and lungi -- and excellent post-production work that they learnt on the go added to the result.

Periyathambi, who could not hide his excitement and emotions over the achievement, said never in his 50 years of cooking he had earned so much praise.

“I had cooked for countless marriages, betrothals, and other events in my life. No one would come and tell me about the taste. But the response I have got in the past three years is amazing and unforgettable,” Periyathambi said.

Three brothers V Subramanian, V Murugesan, and V Ayyanaar, and their cousins Tamilselvan and Muthumanickam got together to launch the channel in 2018. They have invested hugely on procuring some of the best equipment to shoot and edit the videos that enabled them to shine.

The first video of cooking winged termites was uploaded on October 6, 2018 – in the three years, the group has uploaded 173 videos, including the episode in which Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was the guest. Ever since the channel featured Gandhi in January this year, their subscribers have increased manifold.

“Before January, we used to get 10,000 subscribers a day but it to rose to 30,000 after Rahul anna joined us in an episode. We had seven million subscribers in January and have come to 11 million in just a few months. He (Rahul) had a major role to play,” Subramanian said.

The unimaginable success has also brought them “good earnings” which was also a pleasant surprise for the youngsters. “The first earning was about Rs 37,000, and we split the amount among ourselves. What we expected was around Rs 10,000 a month for each of us, but we never thought we would earn in lakhs. We earmark a certain amount of money for cooking so that more people can taste our food,” Subramanian said.

Having cooked in almost all serene localities in the district, the Village Cooking Channel is now scouting for exotic locations in other districts in Tamil Nadu and states in the country. Already, Gandhi has promised to take them to the US for cooking, a tour which the group plans to undertake after the pandemic is over.