Rajjat Barjatya: "Our top performing videos on YouTube are all nursery rhymes"

Rajshri Media’s YouTube channel, with 10.2 crore video views in 16 months, has become the all-time most viewed channel on YouTube.com in India

With 4,598 video clips receiving a total of 10.2 crore views in 16 months, ‘Rajshri’ channel, available at has become the all-time most viewed video channel on YouTube.com in India.

The channel was created in March 2006. However, Rajshri Media, the digital entertainment arm of the Rajshri Group, which manages the channel, started posting video content actively from January 2008.

This is a significant achievement for Rajshri. For, till date, other Bollywood players who have also created their channels on YouTube.com have, put together, not received as many video views as Rajshri has.

For instance, Yash Raj Films’ channel, created in June 2006, has received 1.6 crore video views for all the 626 videos uploaded at Sony BMG has uploaded 266 videos on since June 2008, and has clocked about 60 lakh video views as yet. Similarly, the Shemaroo channel on which is in existence since September 2007, has 2,551 video clips and has got 51 lakh video views so far.

The nearest competitor to Rajshri is the television broadcaster, Zoom TV’s channel at It has received 7.8 crore video views for 3,250 video clips.

afaqs! caught up with Rajjat A Barjatya, director of Rajshri Media, to find out what works for the channel on YouTube.com.

afaqs!: What is the percentage of video views that Rajshri Media’s channel on YouTube.com gets from India?

Barjatya: India constitutes 16-20 per cent of the total video views of the Rajshri channel on YouTube. The US contributes 28 to 30 per cent; UK is 10 per cent and the rest of the traffic is fairly dispersed globally, with large chunks coming from Canada, Pakistan, Australia and Denmark.

afaqs!: What kind of content is in demand on your YouTube channel?

Barjatya: Though entertainment is what works best on YouTube, entertainment does not necessarily mean Bollywood. We find significant traction for kids’ animation videos, such as nursery rhymes. Unlike Bollywood, which appeals primarily to global South Asian audience alone; kids’ content cuts across all demographics.

Our top performing videos are all nursery rhymes. For instance, the ‘Baba Black Sheep’ video has got nearly 33 lakh views; while ‘Old Macdonald’ has got 31 lakh views. But it does not mean that Bollywood music, trailers, songs and scenes do not work. They are hugely popular, but primarily with the Indian diaspora.

TV shows, especially Mahabharata and special interest content, such as Baba Ramdev’s yoga and tarot and astrology videos of Munisha Khatwani, are also popular on our YouTube.com channel.

afaqs!: What is the duration of video clips that are popular on

Barjatya: Our nursery rhymes are between 2-4 minutes each, movie songs and scenes are 3-5 minutes in duration and episodes of TV shows range from 22-45 minutes. YouTube is primarily a short-format or snack medium, but we will be experimenting with full-length feature films as well.

afaqs!: How is Rajshri Media monetising its video content hosted on YouTube?

Barjatya: We are not monetising our video inventory on YouTube on our own, though we are moving in that direction. We have a dedicated in-house ad sales team, which currently monetises Rajshri.com and will be energised to monetise our inventory on YouTube as well, in the near future.

In fact, Google is monetising our video content through advertising and shares the ad revenue with us. Google serves overlays and companion banner ads on cost-per click (CPC) and cost per thousand impressions (CPM) models, against all our videos on YouTube.com.

afaqs!: What is the percentage of revenue that Rajshri Media earns from its YouTube channel?

Barjatya: Google has a standard revenue share deal for all YouTube partners and I cannot disclose financial terms. Our YouTube revenues are growing at 25-50 per cent month-on-month and are pretty significant now.