India’s largest music label and movie studio T-Series has become the world's first YouTube channel to have exceeded 200 million subscribers.
Apart from the main T-Series YouTube channel, there are a further 28 channels in several languages and genres, which have attracted more than 383 million subscribers with over 718 billion views.
“We are thrilled to be the premier Indian YouTube channel to hit such a massive subscriber base. This is indeed a proud moment for all Indians given that a homegrown Indian channel has become the first channel to exceed the colossal 200 million subscribers mark on YouTube," Bhushan Kumar, son of the founder and T-Series chairman and managing director, said
Calling it a proud moment for Indians, Neeraj Kalyan, the president of T-Series, said he believes that becoming the first YouTube channel in the world to hit such a massive subscriber base is indeed a huge achievement for the entire team.
“Music has always been our strength, our core, our passion. The past few years have seen our content gain staggering popularity both within and outside the country. Our journey into the digital domain has now transformed into a newer, more dynamic, and exciting sphere," Kalyan added.
Pawan Agarwal, YouTube and Google's director of music partnerships for India and South Asia, praised T-Series for making the Indian music industry proud with its continuous growth.
"With a finger firmly on the consumer's pulse and an eye to the future in a fast-evolving landscape, T-Series has emerged as a leading trend-setter, constantly innovating formats and digital-first content that connects well with audiences across the world,” Agarwal said.
T-Series is an Indian music record label and film production company founded by late singer Gulshan Kumar on 11 July 1983.
Gulshan, initially a fruit-juice seller in Delhi, founded T-Series to sell pirate Bollywood songs before the company eventually began producing new music.
T-Series had its biggest breakthrough with the songs from blockbuster Bollywood movie 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak' which became one of the best-selling Indian music albums of the 1980s, with more than 8 million sales.
On 12 August 1997, Gulshan was murdered by the Mumbai mafia syndicate D-Company and since then, T-Series has been led by his son Bhushan Kumar and younger brother Krishan Kumar.