From Umar Iqbal to The Umar, this Kashmiri vlogger's rise to fame is inspiring
Sep 20, 2022
Pulwama (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], September 20 : While most youths create youtube channels and other social media pages with the motive to gain likes, views and subscribers, a youth from Kashmir's Pulwama district used social media to share his thoughts with people, with the motive to come out of depression.
Umar Iqbal (23), a resident of Saimoh village in Pulwama's Tral is trending on social media these days, after he started posting motivational/poetry vlogs on social media, particularly on Instagram, where the videos get an overwhelming response with each passing day.
Talking exclusively to this Journalist, Umar said that he lost his mother, a few years back, following which he was in depression, and opted to spend time on social media to come out of it.
He said that he accordingly created a Youtube channel titled as 'The Umar', and went to Bengaluru for study purposes, where he started promoting Kashmiri culture and language, through his videos, at the time of COVID-19, and accordingly he 'came out' of depression.
While pursuing B.Sc. Nursing degree at Bengaluru, Umar continued to post videos/vlogs on his youtube channel, where he would interact with the locals of Bengaluru and would talk to them about the culture and language of Kashmir, before asking them to speak 'Kashmiri' with him.
Umar said, "there is a large number of YouTubers, who work hard to earn likes, views and subscribers, but I always tried to post unique content, which is worth it for viewers."
He said that he focuses on content, not views, which helped him to achieve, more than 72K subscribers on Youtube, One lac 51 thousand likes on his Facebook page, and two lac 16 thousand followers on Instagram, while he earns good money as well, through the internet, and is very satisfied.
In Bengaluru, he would promote the language of Kashmir, the Traditional 'Feran' of Kashmir and the real image of Kashmir, following which people from different parts of the country started subscribing to his channel.
In 2022, Umar took to Instagram and started working there as a 'motivational speaker', where he began posting motivational videos based on poetry, that went viral with each passing day, turning Umar Iqbal into 'The Umar', as Umar get millions of views on his videos now.
He said that his motive to post such videos on Instagram is to inculcate positivity among people, particularly those who are stressed.
"When I post a video on Instagram, that crosses lacs of views within hours, as I always focussed on audiences rather than any other thing, that made me famous," The Umar said.
While giving a message to aspiring Youtubers, Umar said that they should always focus on content rather than likes and money, as money will itself follow them, once they start posting worthy content for audiences.
He said that he was so happy to see the people greeting him for his best work, at Delhi Airport, which made him think that he is really known and famous now.
"My Mother has always been the inspiration for me. From the beginning, I always used my cellphone to make and edit videos. I will continue to focus on hard work, and will try my best to motivate people about how to live a positive life, through my videos," Umar added.