T-Series Managing Director Bhushan Kumar has revealed that he was displeased with PewDiePie's comments about India and the music label itself made at the height of their race for the most-subscribed YouTube channel.
"He is an independent YouTuber and we are a company so it's a different ballgame altogether. I don't know from where he started feeling that we are taking his place or something like that. The only thing we were unhappy about was when he was saying bad things about the country, saying stupid things about T-series online", he said.
Kumar previously stated that the company was not first to embrace the competition - it was compelled to engage in the subscriber battle following a video Pewds shared last September mocking T-Series and India as a whole.
"We were never in this tussle to become number one or two with anyone. But all along there were these sarcastic comments from PewDiePie. And that's how we decided to respond to the comments. I launched the #BharatWinsYouTube campaign, seeking more subscriptions from Indians", he told Quartz.
The T-Series chairman was likely alluding to the diss tracks on the Indian powerhouse, "B*tch Lasagna" and "Congratulations", which were recorded by the Swede in his effort to retain the No. 1 spot on YouTube.
Pewds, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, released the viral hit, "Congratulations", on 31 March to "celebrate" T-Series' dethroning him on YouTube.
The content creator accused the company of selling pirated music to its customers, tax evasion and even of being linked to the mafia. He went as far as to make a reference to sexual harassment allegations against Kumar dating back to October 2018.
The vlogger's creativity led his songs to be banned by the Delhi High Court responding to a complaint by T-Series claiming that Pewds' tracks were "defamatory, disparaging, insulting and offensive", and contained "repeated comments which are abusive, vulgar and also racist in nature".
As part of the ruling, both tracks have been removed from Indian YouTube.
Thank you Supreme Court for banning these two disstrack against India in India.This two video were having racist and abusive language hope YouTube ban this video in all countries #pewdiepie #Tseries pic.twitter.com/jDzjaxaxZg
— Rahul Jha 🇮🇳 (@imrahul_24) 11 апреля 2019 г.
At the time, PewDiePie responded that the tracks were "done in good fun", and he would not continue with what was deemed as derogatory remarks. He even featured a special guest, an Indian boy nicknamed "Blue Shirt Kid", on his Meme Review after the child appeared to express support for Pewds in an Asian Boss video on Indians' thoughts about their standoff.
T-Series, which was presented with the official Guinness World Records certificate earlier this month after becoming the first YouTube channel to surpass 100-million subscriber milestone, has until recently been engaged in an exhausting battle with PewDiePie for months.
The Swede had the most followed channel since 2013, but was dethroned by T-Series, which saw a major uptick in subscribers last year thanks to better Wifi access across India.
