‘I USE MY FAME TO TALK ABOUT KASHMIR AND ART’

When actor Shah Rukh Khan posted a selfie taken with fans at Symbiosis in February, people seemed to have just one question: Who was the beautiful girl just behind him? That girl was Saima Mir, 22, a Kashmiri studying communication design at the Pune campus. “I was taken aback when I saw the picture,” she says.

An introvert not very active on social media until then, Saima didn’t know how to deal with the torrent of messages, posts and the articles that were written about her online. “My Instagram followers shot up in few days,” she says.

In the weeks that followed, Saima got calls from production houses, and offers of movie roles. Because she is Kashmiri, people on her timeline started to fight over India vs Pakistan. Saima logged out of social media for two weeks. When she returned, she says, she had made up her mind to use the attention constructively.

“This fame was sheer luck. I feel like it’s my responsibility to utilise it in the right and meaningful way. I keep sharing things about which I’m passionate - art and Kashmir. I want to show everyone how Kashmir still retains normalcy despite so much political tension,” Saima says.

“I feel happy when people from around the world enquire about visiting Kashmir. We’re living in the time where people need more positivity and need to focus on similarities not differences — that’s what I’m trying to do through social media.”