ChuChu TV began in 2013 when an Indian tech engineer, Vinoth Chandar, made a cartoon for his young daughter (nicknamed “ChuChu”) so that she could learn and laugh. He animated the classic nursery rhyme “Chubby Cheeks” with a cute little girl character based on his daughter. He shared it on YouTube and — to his surprise — it quickly got over 300,000 views in just a few weeks. The video, based on "Chubby Cheeks", received over three hundred thousand views in two weeks. Encouraged by this, Vinoth and his four childhood friends (B. M. Krishnan, T. S. Subbiramanian, Ajith Togo, and Suresh Bhoopathy) turned their side hobby into ChuChu TV Studios. They pooled money from an earlier small IT business they called Buddies Infotech. In short order, they produced their second video based on
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and saw their subscribers climb from a handful to 5,000 to invest in animations. As Vinoth describes it, ChuChu TV was created “for his daughter” and from the start aimed to be “fun, entertaining stories as a teaching tool” for kids age 1–6. n practice, the team spent months researching and planning each video: they chose rhymes or stories that children loved, wrote new happy lyrics, and scored them with energetic music. Vinoth handled the music, while partner Krishnan and others rewrote and wrote lyrics. A YouTube partnerships manager praised their approach: early viewers noticed ChuChu’s “techie” beats and positive spin on classic rhymes, which made the videos very appealing to toddlers. As one YouTube executive said, “Nursery rhymes have an inherent negativity in them. ChuChu TV’s extension of the lyrics to give it a positive spin works." After the first few hits, ChuChu TV took off. By April 2015, the channel had over 1 million subscribers. In 2017 it won YouTube’s Diamond Button (for 10 million subs), and by 2020 the main channel hit 50 million subs. (ChuChu TV’s network of channels together has grown even larger.) From 2014 onward, the team focused on quality over quantity: they produced only about 10–15 videos a month, each carefully polished. As Vinoth explains, “for us it’s about quality versus quantity” – they would rather release a few perfect videos than dozens of average ones. Inside ChuChu TV’s Chennai studio, Vinoth or Krishnan personally review every video (even catching tiny errors in one of the most popular videos from the channel, the "
Johny Johny Yes Papa" rhyme, before uploading) Their hard work paid off: by 2017 ChuChu TV was (by one count) the #1 YouTube channel in Asia-Pacific (across all categories) and #2 globally in the education genre. It also became
15th most popular overall worldwide. Today, ChuChu TV Studios has grown to about 200 animators, editors and artists (up from 4 in the beginning) all working in a large Chennai office. The five founder-partners (Vinoth, Krishnan, Subbiramanian, Togo, and Suresh) each took a role: Vinoth is CEO/creative director (and composer), Krishnan leads the lyrics and creative team, Subbiramanian heads finance/partnerships, Ajith handles legal, and Suresh runs operations. Along with these core leaders, a team of voice actors, singers and animators (many of them parents themselves) bring ChuChu’s songs and stories to life. As Vinoth puts it, “my partner Krishnan and I take care of this channel full time, supported by our other partners and close friends." == Content style ==