YONO SBI 20 Under Twenty
Child cooking creator (KichaTube HD); appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2016 and won the YONO SBI 20 Under Twenty award in 2019.
2019-02-03 · Supporting source ↗
YouTube creator (KichaTube HD) · INDIA
Nihal Rajagopal
Child cooking creator (KichaTube HD); appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2016 and won the YONO SBI 20 Under Twenty award in 2019.
6 when reported in September 2016
Kerala · India
Image source ↗ · Global Voices · screenshot from KichaTube HD video
Source photograph · credit and provenance below
BEHIND THE RESULT
The documented story
Nihal Raj of Thripunithura, Kochi, began cooking beside his mother, a home baker, at four; his father filmed him, and in January 2015 the family opened the YouTube channel KichaTube HD. His recipes were chosen to be child-safe — no cooking over fire, no knives — and his first video was ice popsicles. In February 2019 he won the YONO SBI 20 Under Twenty award in the Social Media Influencer category, a State Bank of India programme award.
A video that travelled
In May 2016, Facebook bought non-exclusive rights to his ‘Mickey Mouse Mango Ice Cream’ video for 2,000 US dollars for a campaign. That September, aged six by the reports of the time, he appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the United States and showed the host how to make puttu, a Kerala breakfast dish. Reports called him the youngest Indian on the show; that wording is the reports’ claim, not a verified record. He holds no government award, and this story claims none for him.
A spark to explore
If you could teach one recipe from your home on video, what would it be — and who taught it to you? Kicha’s channel began with exactly that: a family recipe, a phone camera, and an adult close by. That question is ours; his documented story ends with the 2019 award, and no recent report of his activities was found.
Source-based story · the activities are prompts for readers.
Open the article edition →The achievement, in context.
Sources you can explore.
Global Voices · 6 October 2016 ↗Independent feature report
The Kochi Post · 24 September 2016 ↗Local news report with family interviews
Ritz Magazine · February 2019 ↗Award report
Original source ↗Another spark to discover.
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10 at the Global Child Prodigy Award in January 2020
Read the story →Global Child Prodigy Awards · video still ↗Source photograph · see credit
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Aged 12 in November 2018 (Scroll) and 13 in February 2019 (CollegeDekho)
Read the story →CollegeDekho ↗Source photograph · see credit
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Aged 11 in November 2018 coverage (Scroll)
Read the story →Aayu and Pihu Show (official website) ↗Source photograph · see credit