Three best friends in a foreign land, united by Lankan blood. Travel vloggers Arjuna ‘AB’, Vidura ‘NEO’ and Dilan the ‘Camera guy’ began their successful YouTube channel ‘Lankan Kollo’, as a way to share their experiences and breathtaking views in New Zealand to all the Sri Lankan viewers around the globe. Since starting blogging in mid 2020, Lankan Kollo has attracted over a thousand subscribers and over a thousand minutes of video views to date.
In addition to creating content for their YouTube channel, Lankan Kollo has their own Facebook and Instagram pages. The boys have been traveling a lot within New Zealand to give a unique inside view to the outside world.
The channel started out as a travel vlog based in Auckland. Eventually expanding their travel vlog to both the northern and southern islands, they have started posting content which are unique to the Sri Lankans living in New Zealand. Apart from traveling, they have promoted several small scale businesses such as supermarkets and restaurants run by Sri Lankans. Lankan Kollo being typical Sri Lankan boys who love sports and outdoor activities, a huge highlight of their vlogging career is getting to promote a sporting icon from Sri Lanka who represents New Zealand. Not to forget Lankan Kollo have showcased the unity and ‘ekamuthuwa’ of the Sri Lankan community in New Zealand by collaborating with local Sri Lankans sharing their experiences.
The greatest breakthrough moment of the channel was when they exceeded over 1k views for the initial videos within a matter of weeks and getting over 1k subscribers within a span of 4 months. This allowed them to expand their horizons and collaborate with Sri Lankan restaurants, supermarkets and sports personnel.
When we look at the backgrounds of the three vloggers, all three of them are from different regions of Sri Lanka. Even though they never knew each other before coming to New Zealand, they have formed an unbreakable brotherhood among them. All being graduates from top universities in New Zealand and are now working in their respective fields at reputed companies, they strive to save up money and explore the unknowns during off days and go the extra mile to show the fans in Sri Lanka and the world how amazing New Zealand is. When I had a chat with them I understood the extreme hardships they had to undergo while balancing both the degree and doing their part time jobs. But they never gave up on their dreams! They are quite confident about the channel’s growth, that they are planning to make this a full time career.
Apart from the amazing content that Lankan Kollo uploads, they encourage other Sri Lankans who live in various parts of the world to start vlogging.
The emerging YouTube stars advise that consistency is the key in vlogging. And that the video, sounds and color balancing should harmonize for that perfect video. Also they advice to make content which you love and which is close to your heart.
On a personal note, I would like to add that lankan kollo amidst all the fame and popularity, are humble to all the people who have supported them specially their families and not forgetting their wonderful fan base, whom they consider the backbone of the channel.
As per courtesy of the channel let me finish this article by saying…..”Meh Lankan Kollo”
