C H I T C HAT
Meet Muni Sanchez: the
Dubsmash Queen
I
t is highly likely that you may have come across a Dubsmash video of a young woman performing dialogues
not just in Urdu/Hindi or English but Pushto as well. If
you haven’t, you are definitely living under a rock.Meet
Muni Sanchez, who has become quite the internet sensation these past few weeks.
But what’s even more impressive is the story behind
Muni’s newfound claim to fame. “I am originally a beauty
and fashion ‘YouTuber’,” she BOOM. “I first started a
YouTube channel in 2008 and
coming from a strict Pathan
background, I was asked
to remove it by my father.
Someone had asked him to
pressure me into deleting all
my videos. And listening to
people say a lot of bad things
about me, it just didn’t go so
well with him.”
Muni is Pakistani American. Her family moved to
the US when she was five
and although she has lived
in America ever since, she
acknowledges that her parents were not supportive like
many conservative parents
living in Pakistan.“I started
another
YouTube
channel in early 2010 but after I
reached 3,000 subscribers, I
was again asked by my family to remove it. So I deleted
my channel without fighting
for my happiness or rights,”
she said.However, she isn’t
one to give up so easily. Muni
started a YouTube channel
the third time in mid-2010. “My sister found out about
it after I reached 7,000 viewers and she informed my
mother. But this time, I refused to listen to my mother.
She told me that she would talk to my father and after a
lot of convincing, he eventually allowed me to keep my
YouTube channel. I made sure to dress appropriately and
speak in a manner that would not make the family look
bad.”A graduate of Drexel University, Muni has a degree
in criminal justice. “Many say I’m a bit weird or crazy, I
accept that title. I enjoy what I am.”It has now been close
to five years since Muni’s presence on YouTube and the
success has finally started pouring in. Last August, her
subscribers jumped up. “I now have over 150,000 subscribers on the channel and my most viewed video is
has 2.9 Million views. That’s a huge achievement for
me.”As far as her Dubsmash videos are concerned, she
reveals she had actually made the first one to cheer up a
friend. “My best friend Fareeda was upset and I decided
to cheer her up with silly Dubsmash videos. And I kind
of became addicted after a few and woke up the next
morning wanting to film more. And then, I went completely crazy. I decided to
put all the dubs together
to make a compilation and
posted it to Facebook. I
never expected any of
the attention I got from it.
I really thought I was going to get maximum two or
three thousand views. But
the views kept going up
with people and Facebook
pages posting and sharing it.”Muni says that her
video got a boost when it
was picked up by another
internet sensation ‘Khan
Saab’. Like Muni, Khan
Saab too makes funny
Dubsmash videos and
was one of the runner-ups
of Dubsmash Challenge.
“I want to thank all my fans
for being so supportive of
mine and Muni’s videos.
Thank you for taking time
out of your day to watch
our videos. We really enjoy making these videos,”
he said in a special message delivered to us through Muni.And Muni too has
a special message for her fans. If it weren’t for them I
would have never gotten the title of Dubsmash Queen. I
want to thank the viewers and fans of my videos whether
they are lovers of it or haters of it. They are the ones who
put me on the list of contestants. Sharing my videos, liking, reposting, it all helped so much. So thank you everyone who has been a part of this success.”“It may not be
a lot to some… but I feel like I’ve already achieved everything with the love I’ve gotten. There is nothing more I
can ask for. So thank you viewers and thank you BOOM
for this incredible opportunity.”
24 | BOOM