How regional languages are fueling YouTube’s growth in India

On a Tuesday afternoon, Lata Mangeshkar’s sonorous voice in Jaane kyon log mohabbat kiya karte hai, from the 1971 film Mehboob Ki Mehndi, helps Sulthan Ahmed unwind while waiting for customers in Bengaluru. The middle-aged autorickshaw driver who has parked near the shopping hub of Commercial Street is glad he spent Rs 2,500 a year ago to buy a smartphone, his first.

The YouTube app on his Motorola, propped up on the dashboard, is mainly to “play old songs, and that too when I am waiting for customers,” he says. But it does not take long for him to reveal that he uses the free video-streaming app for more.