ChuChu TV is the third most subscribed YouTube Channel in the country with 7.13 billion views. Many may not know what is ChuChu TV? It is the country’s most watched children’s rhymes channel. With the motto of ‘spreading goodness among children’, ChuChu TV has become the ‘to-go’ place for kids and their parents to educate and entertain them.

The century old nursery rhymes have been given a positive twist thereby inculcating the good thoughts and habits among kids. With its vibrant touch and jazzy beats, they have been the daily endeavor of feeding and pacifying children.

In an exclusive interview with Animation Digital Digest’s Leo Oommen, ChuChu TV CEO & Creative Director Vinoth Chandar talks about what inspired him to start ChuChu TV and his take on the licensing and merchandising.

What inspired you to start ChuCHu TV?

My daughter was my inspiration to start ChuChu TV. ChuChu is her nickname, when she was two-years old I was showing her some YouTube videos to calm her and teach her some basics and that’s how the idea clicked. I wanted to draw my daughter into a 2D or 3D art and present it to her and I did that. The character came out really well and she was ecstatic. After animating her, I showed it to her and she loved it.

Initially I made a video of my daughter reciting Chubby Cheeks nursery rhyme and she was adorable reciting it. I wanted to upload her video but I did not want her to be exposed to media at such an early age. I made an animated video and uploaded it on YouTube and to my surprise it picked up around 300,000 views in just two weeks. I found potential in this field and took this ahead with my partners of the Software Company.

How did you decide to start a channel on YouTube instead of going for some other platform?

I am associated with YouTube right from the start.  I along with M. Krishnan (Creative Head) used to upload singles and devotional songs regularly. I knew that this is going to be the future and monetary wise we never thought it would be a good business opportunity. We did a new version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star nursery rhyme in our own style. That was very popular as just with two videos uploaded we got 5000 subscribers. YouTube partnership manager called us and appreciated our work and that motivated us to do even better.

Krishnan then brought a great change to the content. The first video we made was Jack and Jill rhyme but we changed the lyrics to add good values and changed the whole rhyme into a very positive meaning. Most of the rhymes which we know have dark origins like the Rhyme Ring around the Rosie. Though its lyrics and even its title have gone through some changes over the years, the most popular contention is that the sing-songy verse refers to the 1665 Great Plague of London.

Do you think the traditional art of storytelling and oral traditions have been lost due to digitalized world of content being presented to the children?

No, I don’t think our traditions will ever be lost. We are trying to improvise, earlier nursery rhymes were just a lullaby and today it is much more than that. The new generation kids are different as they get access to mobile phones and tablets much before than we did. We are making good content for the new age kids. As these kids are into the digital world, we plan to make them watch something good. Instead of glamorizing violence we want kids to watch good content. We rewrite the lyrics; give it a positive and vibrant touch. Although the tiny tots won’t be able to catch the lyrics and sing along, the visual impact would be good. That’s why digital.

NDTV has featured our version of the Jack & Jill rhyme all the way 3 years back. The original version says that they fell down and broke their leg. We added another paragraph saying ‘where there is a will, there is a way’. In our version, they successfully bring down the pile of water. We were appreciated for the change made to the concept. Similarly, we don’t use the other nursery rhymes as they are. We change it for better.

What is the new with ChuChu TV in terms of content? Are you Indianising the content for Indian audience?

From inception we made sure all our content are original. We change the concept and the lyrics. Almost 50% of the videos which we have done are original songs. Our goal is to be educative and be entertaining as well. We want to teach the new age toddlers what they learn in pre-school like alphabets and numbers in our new intriguing style. We are not indianising the content but we are globalizing it. Most of our users are from the US and followed by India so keep the content world friendly. All the viewers around the world will enjoy our content.