When 62-year old Arumugam, a handlebar mustache-sporting man from Theni district appeared on camera for the first time, little would have he and his son Gopinath knwimagined that they would appear in the The New Yorker magazine, lest as a internet sensation.

Village Food Factory , a cookery channel created in 2016 by the father-son duo on You Tube, went viral among food lovers not just from India but across the globe, who tuned in to watch the culinary skills of this sexagenarian Master Chef.

In just two years, the channel got over 2.2 million subscribers and ranked second in You Tube’s top-10 Tamil creators list by subscriber base.

“All this could be created with the help of one DSLR camera and a YouTube channel and not to mention, my father,” said Gopinath at the second ‘Tamil Day’ hosted by YouTube here on Monday.

You Tube’s Tamil Day was organised to highlight the massive demand for local Indian language content and to celebrate the success of the fast-growing creators from Tamil Nadu.

“In 2014, only 16 YouTube channels had more than 1 million subscribers in India but today it has gone over 300,” said Satya Raghavan, Director, Content Partnerships, YouTube, India.

“44 out of the 300 channels are Tamil channels,” he added.

Noting that 250 million out of 400 million internet users visit YouTube every month, Raghavan said that the number is set to grow more with the telecom revolution aiding cheaper data availability and the ushering of more smartphone users.

“Our Tamil creators and channels are growing at a staggering rate across verticals such as Learning, Food, Tech, Comedy and Music,” said Raghavan.

Leading Tamil content creators and channels such as Vikatan TV , Sony Music South , Black Sheep and Chellame Chellam spoke about their journey on YouTube and how they built quality content.s with a variety of offerings.

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