Chinna Veeramangalam

Chinna Veeramangalam Cooks

The farmers-turned-You- Tube stars who took their village, Chinna Veeramangalam is in Pudukkottai district. The farmers family there did what they knew best in a different way. That took them to an international audience.

It is about cooking. Our village cooking the traditional cooking. The videos have garnered one crore subscribers and handsome reward! 

The Village Cooking Channel was awarded a Diamond Play button by YouTube for its achievement. The group donated 10 lakh from their earnings to the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund (CMPRF) to aid the fight against COVID-19.

"Ellarum vaanga, always welcomes you!" - this is how the enthusiastic team of six welcomes viewers to each video on the channel. The group, comprising cousins Subramanian, V. Murugesan, V. Ayyanar, G. Tamilselvan and T. Muthumanickam, and led by their grandfather and former caterer M. Periyathambi, began the channel as a way to pass time when they were not engaged in cultivating their agricultural lands."We began this channel to pass time when we had no work, and to supplement our income. All men in Chinna Veeramangalam cook, and we decided to show it to the world,” Mr. Subramanian, the team's in- house cameraman and tech expert, said.

The team earns around 7 lakh a month from the advertising revenue generated by YouTube views. As viewership has increased, so has the quantity of food cooked in the videos. “We utilize at least one-fourth of the money we make on purchasing ingredients and preparing a feast," Mr. Subramanian said. "We serve the food to our friends, relatives and other people in the village,” he added. “Amid the lock-down, we began serving food in old-age homes and orphanages," he said. 

The team also credited the rise in its popularity to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit. “We used to get about 10,000 new subscribers a day. But since Mr. Gandhi's visit, we have been getting 30,000 to 40,000 new subscribers a day,” Mr. Subramanian said. The Village Cooking Channel is the first YouTube Channel from Tamil Nadu to have one crore subscribers.