PETALING JAYA: Sugu Pavithra, whose family shot to fame earlier this year over their cooking videos, says they are still struggling to adjust to their spot in the limelight.
Pavithra and her husband M Sugu, who created the Sugu Pavithra YouTube channel in January, became an instant hit among Malaysians who praised their humility and fluency in Malay.
The channel now has 765,000 subscribers and has even received attention from Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, but Pavithra says she also has to deal with criticism and issues such as fake social media accounts.
“It’s hard because this is a new situation for us,” she said in a webinar hosted by Google on the country’s economic recovery.
“We never thought the channel would grow so large. This all happened very quickly and took us by surprise,” she said, adding however that it was “a gift from God”.
“Before this, our lives were normal and we could do whatever we wanted.
“Now, we have a lot of daily commitments but we take that as a positive thing.”
Pavithra, who was recently involved in a photo shoot for a local lifestyle portal, said she had been forced to hire a manager as she was unable to keep up with requests for media engagements which have been coming from as far off as India.
The 28-year-old was also recently awarded the YouTube Silver Play Button award given to channels that reach or surpass 100,000 subscribers.
She said this, too, took her by surprise as she had never set any target for subscribers or viewership.
While the channel is “all about cooking”, she said, she and her husband were open to exploring other ideas.
“We are always thinking about how to make more attractive content, and we sometimes think about creating content other than cooking,” she said.
“We are also new to this and we are always thinking about how to improve.”
– FMT