T-Series (company)

Lore & Background

T-Series was founded on 11 July 1983 by Gulshan Kumar, at the time a fruit juice seller in the Daryaganj neighbourhood of Delhi. The company initially sold pirated Hindi film songs, prior to releasing original music. Kumar discovered a market for devotional music, hiring singers to record hymns and chants for elderly Hindu followers, and later filmed major Hindu pilgrimages for sale on VHS. The company's breakthrough came with the soundtrack for the 1988 Bollywood blockbuster Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, composed by Anand–Milind, which became one of the best-selling Indian music albums of the 1980s with over 8 million sales. T-Series later became a leading music label with the release of Aashiqui (1990), composed by Nadeem–Shravan, which sold 20 million copies and became the best-selling Indian soundtrack album of all time.

Reader's Guide

T-Series transformed the Indian music industry by capitalizing on the cassette boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s, releasing affordable albums that reached mass audiences. Its founder, Gulshan Kumar, was murdered by the Mumbai mafia syndicate D-Company on 12 August 1997, after which the company was led by his son Bhushan Kumar and younger brother Krishan Kumar. On YouTube, T-Series became the most-viewed channel in January 2017 and was the most-subscribed channel from April 2019 to June 2024, when it was overtaken by MrBeast. The company's multi-channel network includes 43 channels with over 591 million subscribers as of April 2025. T-Series has also produced more than 100 films, including the critically acclaimed Hindi Medium (2017) and the expensive sci-fi thriller Saaho (2019). Its significance lies in its dominance of Indian music and its pioneering role in building a massive online audience for Hindi and regional-language content.

Did You Know?

• T-Series initially sold pirated Hindi songs before producing original music.
• Its founder Gulshan Kumar was a fruit juice seller before starting the company.
• The Aashiqui (1990) soundtrack sold 20 million copies, the best-selling Hindi film soundtrack album of all time.
• T-Series became the first YouTube channel to reach 100 million subscribers in May 2019.

From Juice Stalls to Cassettes: An Unlikely Origin

Gulshan Kumar didn't start as a music mogul—he was selling fruit juice in Delhi's Daryaganj neighborhood when he founded Super Cassettes Industries on 11 July 1983. The Indian audio cassette market of that era was small and riddled with piracy, yet demand for recorded music was surging. Kumar, described as passionately market- and consumer-driven, initially sold pirated Hindi film songs and exploited copyright loopholes to flood the market with cover versions. He also spotted an underserved niche: devotional music. Noticing that many elderly Hindu devotees could no longer read hymns due to failing eyesight, he hired singers to record chants and sold them as inexpensive cassettes. He even filmed major Hindu pilgrimages for VHS and video cassette distribution. The company's first original soundtrack release was for the 1984 film Lallu Ram, scored by Ravindra Jain, marking the pivotal shift from piracy to legitimate production.

The Albums That Built an Empire

T-Series' trajectory changed dramatically with the 1988 soundtrack for Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. Composed by Anand–Milind with lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri, the album—featuring the iconic "Papa Kehte Hain" sung by Udit Narayan—sold over 8 million units and became one of the best-selling Indian soundtrack albums of the decade. But the true landmark came in 1990 with Aashiqui, directed by Mahesh Bhatt and scored by Nadeem–Shravan. That album moved 20 million copies in India, cementing its place as the best-selling Hindi film soundtrack of all time. T-Series was largely credited with igniting the Indian music industry's early-1990s boom, releasing many of the era's top-selling albums, particularly Nadeem–Shravan compositions. The financial growth was staggering: annual earnings climbed from ₹20 crore in 1985 to ₹200 crore by 1991, reaching ₹500 crore by 1997. At its peak, the label commanded up to 35% of India's music market.

A Tragic Turning Point and a New Era

On 12 August 1997, Gulshan Kumar was murdered by the Mumbai mafia syndicate D-Company, a devastating blow that upended the company's trajectory. The assassination had ripple effects beyond the loss of its founder: T-Series lost its most prolific musical collaborators, the duo Nadeem–Shravan, when Nadeem Akhtar Saifi was initially accused of involvement in the killing before being exonerated. The company's leadership passed to Gulshan's son Bhushan Kumar, supported by his younger brother Krishan Kumar. Under their stewardship, T-Series expanded beyond music into film production, eventually producing over 100 films. While the company's film output has seen moderate success, it produced the critically acclaimed sleeper hit Hindi Medium (2017), directed by Saket Chaudhary and starring Irrfan Khan, which grossed ₹322.4 crore worldwide including $34 million in China. On the other end of the spectrum, their 2019 sci-fi thriller Saaho carried one of the most expensive production budgets in Indian cinema at ₹300 crore.

The Digital Colossus on YouTube

T-Series' dominance extended far beyond physical cassettes into the digital age. The company joined YouTube on 13 March 2006, and its main channel—featuring primarily Hindi music videos and film trailers, with occasional content in Bhojpuri, Punjabi, and English—became the most-viewed channel on the platform in January 2017. It held the title of most-subscribed channel from 14 April 2019 until MrBeast overtook it on 2 June 2024. As of August 2026, the channel has accumulated over 353 billion views and 314 million subscribers. The broader T-Series multi-channel network spans 43 channels, including Lahari Music, with a combined 591.35 million subscribers as of April 2025. These channels cover a remarkable linguistic range—Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Haryanvi, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam, Rajasthani, Himachali, and Kashmiri—alongside dedicated streams for Hindu devotional content, health and fitness, and children's programming. Remarkably, the entire YouTube operation is managed by a team of just 13 people at the company's headquarters.