INDIA -PAKISTAN- INFER : STUDENTS-STARDOM

                                    

A 19-year-old Pakistani student who shot to fame after her five-second video went viral across the subcontinent, hopes numerous renditions of the monologue will translate into more dialogue between India and Pakistan.

The short video shot by Dananeer Mobeen in Nathiagali and uploaded onto Instagram shows a group of youngsters enjoying themselves by the roadside.

Swinging around the device is she is filming on, Mobeen gestures behind her and says in Urdu, ''This is our car, this is us and this is our party taking place.''

Seemly innocuous, Mobeen deliberately mispronounces the English word ''party'' as powri to poke fun at South Asians who adopt Western accents. It immediately struck a chord in both India and Pakistan, sparking top trending hashtags on social media and garnerin millions of views and hundreds of spin-offs.

''It was the most random video. I initially had no intention of uploading it,'' Mobeen said, expressing surprise at how viral it has gone and adding that trend showed the power and reach of social media.

The pawri monologue renditions have been used by the police in India and the Delhi Commission for Women in their social media outreach campaigns.

In one video, two Indian soldiers deployed in snowy mountains give it their own spin with ''This is us, this is our gun and we're patrolling here'' while popular Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh and Deepka Padukone each did a version that also went viral.

 Indian dairy company Amul, known for inculcating trendy takes on current issues in its advertisements, did a ''this is out pav-tea'' version, in a nod to a popular bread snack eaten with tea.

Even politicians jumped on the bandwagon, with a leader from the BJP using the catchy hook at an election rally.

''I'm honoured and grateful for all the love across the border,'' said Mobeen, expressing her happiness at fostering some rare friendly cross-border dialogue,

India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed nations, have fought three wars and often had tense relations since gaining independence in 1947.

Relations had most recently soured over developments in the northern region of Kashmir, which booth countries control in parts but claim in full. 

Last week, the militaries released a rare joint statement saying they had agreed to observe a ceasefire along the disputed Kashmir border, after exchanging fire hundreds of times over past months.

Since the video went viral, Mobeen said she has been inundated with acting and modelling offers, along with requests for products and endorsements.

Instaad, she says she aspires to join Pakistan Foreign services. [Reuters]