A young Kashmiri singer hailing from Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir is aspiring to provide more space to the Kashmiri language in Bollywood through his singing.
"I want the Kashmiri language to reach Bollywood and I also want to reach Bollywood. I am working hard to reach Mumbai and perform in Bollywood," said Ishfaq Kawa, the young singer.
Kawa, who along with his local music band Rooh, has performed in major cities across the country want to bring laurels to Kashmir.
Sharing about his interest in singing, the young singer said, "There was no such atmosphere of singing here, but I learned by listening to others. I wanted to make Kashmir proud. I am having God gifted talent which inspired me towards singing".
He got inspired by listening to Vijay Kumar Malla, a renowned Kashmiri singer.
"We were not having any platform, but with social media the latent of Kashmir gets recognition. I also got appreciation through social media", said Ishfaq.
A few years back he launched a Kashmiri version of a Hindi song 'channa mereya' and it went viral. It gave him the motivation to sing more and take singing as a career.
"Having performed in Chandigarh, Delhi and Hyderabad along with Jammu & Kashmir, I am eager to make a mark in Bollywood. I got very good responses from everywhere. People appreciate our singing style", said Ishfaq.
Ishfaq told that in Kashmir, folk music is popular and it needs to be promoted at the national and international level like Punjabi songs, which are popular everywhere. "We have now started promoting Kashmiri in a new style", said this Kashmiri singer.
Ishfaq has recently completed a video shoot for his latest Kashmiri song in a nearby village. The video album will be launched to give promotion to Kashmiri music.
( With inputs from ANI )