Now a famous YouTuber, Idrees Mir once wanted to cover Palestine as a journalist
Idrees Mir is a kashmiri youtuber known for his comic content and reaction videos to various political leaders and other trending topics on internet.
A student of journalism, Idrees drew his inspiration from his maternal uncle, a famous journalist Samir Yasir. “I grew up watching him (Samir Yasir) collecting stories, researching on them and discussing them.” Said Idrees Mir While talking to The Kashmir Radar correspondent Umran Hussain.
Growing up in such an enviroment where journalism was discussed every now and then, Idrees started dreaming about being a journalist and after finishing his schooling, he pursued his graduation in journalism from Baramulla degree college.
Born in 1995 in Main town Baramulla, Idrees always had a spark to ignite the journalist in him. After his graduation, Idrees started his internship with “Kashmir Life” where he would make a series of photographs covering a story for the magazine.
After completing his internship, he started working with other organisations but left them soon because, Idrees says that, “he always wanted to become his own boss.”
“Since I worked with organisations that never allowed me to showcase my inner voice, the things I actually wanted to do. I actually wanted to become the voice of the people.”
“With each passing day, journalism was getting deeper into my genes and I wanted to go to Palestine and cover the conflict there, but again due to some circumstances I had to give up for the time being.” Said Idrees.
During his mid career crisis he had started his own photo agency “Noble Images” which he got properly registered and along with his employees he started capturing pictures from all corners of the valley including nature, history etc.
“I was again unfortunate enough because we found no buyers for our work as the goverment agencies already had their own photographers with them.”
Later that year, because of prolonged internet shutdown, Idrees had to closed that down.
“As a freelancer I got my work published in First Post, Rising Kashmir and many other leading newspapers and magazines. Meanwhile I got admission in The central university of Jammu for my masters in journalism and during my masters I covered Sujwan encounter which was later published by “The Citizen.” Said Idrees.
After grooming himself and polishing his abilities he later started his own YouTube channel in 2018 “Idrees Mir” and started posting videos of lifestyle vlogging and travel vlogging and he started gaining viewership which prompted him to move further.
Idrees Mir didn’t become successful just because of a sudden viral hit, instead the reason behind his success is consistency and dedication.
After gaining popularity, he now invests heaps of time to work on suggestions and comments of his fans.
So far as handling trolls and haters is concerned, Idrees Mir’s maturity comes into play.
“I have been receiving lots of hate comments in the begining, but I learnt to handle them by ignoring them.” Said Idrees.
Now a succesful youtuber Idrees Mir credits his online success to his parents who have always been there for him even in tougher times.
“The euphoria of unexpected support from my parents is a feeling that I think is unforgettable, because living in a conservative society where video making or content creation is naive and people hardly look at it as a means of earning.” Says Idrees Mir.
“I love that feeling when I see my parents waiting for my videos and I can say with certainty that first two views of my videos come from my mom and dad” said Idrees Mir.
idrees Mir is presently Pursuing Phd in journalism and wants to teach students the practicalities of journalism in future.
He is doing lifestyle and travel Vlogging for which he has dedicated solely his channel “Idrees Mir” and later on the demand of his fans, he started another channel “Idrees Mir Reacts” that exclusively features his reaction videos only.
Umran Hussain works as an online editor for “The Kashmir Radar.” He can be mailed at umranhussainkr@gmail.com
