What has birthed from burying the aspirations of settling overseas has now grown to a historical height that no one could probably achieve in a short span - Village Cooking Channel has turned the nation and beyond towards it by a remarkable milestone of earning 1 crore subscribers on YouTube. You read it right, 1 crore subscribers and the hands that believed in cooking have now unveiled the 'diamond' button bestowed by the video platform for reaching a striking height.

Village Cooking Channel, which has entered the digital world at its peak in 2018, has now become the first Tamil Youtube channel to earn 1 crore subscribers, thanks to their pure recipe and true support from the people. The achievement has been going viral on social media with several users from across and beyond the borders commending the channel for the milestone and patting its back to reach more heights. 

When YouTube has become a source of income and a virtual way to reach many people, Village Cooking Channel has set a precedent on how to win the challenges in a virtual way by being in a remote village. Cousins Subramanian, Ayannar, Tamilselvan, Muthumanickam, and Murugesan are from Chinna Veeramangalam in Pudukottai district, Tamil Nadu. Like many others in the village, the cousins aspired to go abroad to earn money. 

However, as they couldn't find any opportunities to chase their aspirations, they had decided to give up their aspirations and started a YouTube channel, not as an expert in the digital world but as a starter. As their grandfather Periyathambi is a chef, all of them had decided to start a channel in cooking -- result, 'Village Cooking Channel' was born in 2018. The journey in the digital era was difficult for them but there were no turnbacks.

They got the first breakthrough through the video of eating winged termites and with that, they went on to release the videos of cooking fish and crabs, winning more eyes and mouths. With incessant videos and pure and must-tasted recipes of food, they continued to attract viewers, and eight months after starting the channel, they start getting paid by YouTube. Subscribers were piling up at rocketing pace. 

What has been a cooking channel has gone to a scale of the national channel when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi participated in the cooking. Rahul Gandhi has toured Tamil Nadu for the recently-held assembly polls and amid the poll campaigning, he had decided to take a break and visited the channel team and he then cooked mushroom biryani with the chefs. Rahul's cooking video had garnered national attention towards the channel and subscribers were surging, surging, and surging. 

YouTube has witnessed the influx of multiple accounts from Tamil Nadu and across India during the Covid lockdown as the new normal has confined the people to stay connected virtually. The global video platform has become a source of income but Village Cooking Channel didn't aim at income as they were passionate about exhibiting different recipes to the viewers. The decision of starting the channel by giving up their aspirations to work abroad has given a new and remarkable life to the cousins. 

On Sunday, Village Cooking Channel has become the first YouTube channel in South India to earn 10 million (1 crore) subscribers by posting 170 videos. Their work of presenting traditional food through the digital world has earned more love and support from the people, who turned into subscribers. As inspiring Youtubers, the team of Village Cooking Channel has proudly released a video on Sunday in which they unveiled the Diamond button presented to them by YouTube for reaching 1 crore subscribers.

The video of unboxing the diamond button had garnered over 2 million views within 24 hours as the social media users are congratulating them for reaching a remarkable milestone. Earlier in an interview with a news agency, one of the cousins Ayyanar has said that the cousins had come to cooking with not much interest. He said, "Children in farming families learn cooking at a young age. Our parents and grandparents go to the fields in the morning and return in the evening." 

"We would be asked to cook and would be scolded if we forget to add enough spices or salt", Ayyanar added. The team would travel to nearby villages and sometimes more than 50 km away in search of green fields for their videos and the shoot for a video would go for ten hours sometimes and the video will be edited the next day, before releasing the video. Being in a rural area, they have been battling the slow internet connection to upload a video in their channel.

The team had initially cooked videos for a few people and as the income had increased, they started cooking more and distributed the food to charity homes, and feed people from the village. One of the cousins said, "We once cooked for 650 people. Initially, we used to earn only a little from YouTube, but we now make a lot. We started  the channel thinking it would provide for the six of us and our families but it gave us much more than expected." 

The senior of the team, Periyathambi has said to a news agency, "I cooked at many functions, each time for more than 1,000 people. Though I cooked at many events, I never got as much happiness as I do now. Nobody used to appreciate me or my cooking. Now, everyone appreciates us and our cooking. They call me 'thatha' (grandfather) and it brings me happiness. Cooking with my grandsons is such a great joy. We just laugh, cook, and enjoy."