Tamil movie teasers of Kabali and Bahubali on YouTube were more popular than Hollywood blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens released in 2015.

Kabali teaser had nearly 34 million views in YouTube, an on-demand video platform from Google. This was followed by Bahubali with nearly 24 million views. On the other hand, the Star Wars movie teaser had only 22 million views, said Ajay Vidyasagar, Regional Director, APAC Partnerships at YouTube. These two Tamil movies had set a benchmark for regional content indicating the massive demand for local language content, he told newspersons. Tamil is a signature language for YouTube, which wants to have larger a presence in the regional language by working with various content creators. Indian language partner content watch time is annually growing by 100 per cent and Tamil partners are ahead of others with a massive growth in both users and watch time. In the last four years, Chu Chu TV had crossed over 200 videos and with over 14 million subscribers. It leads the global rankings for top channels for kids content and its success is an example of India’s ability to compete globally in content and story telling, he said.

YouTube celebrated the success of Tamil creators and presented the Diamond Play Button to Chu Chu TV for crossing 10 million subscribers. It released top creators channel from Chennai by subscribers - Chu Chu TV, C4e Tech, Madras Central, Put Chutney, Jump Cuts, Madras Meter, Smile Settai, Tamil Tech, Tech Factory, Tamil Today, Hot to Raju, Sreenath recipes, Loud oli and Gowri Samayalarai. Vidyasagar said in the next three years YouTube expects its user base in India to triple from present 400 million. Nearly, 50 per cent of user base will be from rural areas. In future, the company will explore a subscription model for some of the features presently available in US and Korea. “As the market evolves, we may look at this model in India,” he said without giving a time frame.

On curbing piracy, Vidyasagar said YouTube had already started working with production houses such as Aamir Khan Production and Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chilliess. “We saved nearly $1 billion for Hollywood movies last year,” he claimed.