'Came to Dubai to do something big': Meet Pakistani delivery rider behind viral dance reels

The city may stop, but delivery riders seldom do. Rain or shine, storm or standstill, they’re the ones still weaving through traffic to bring our favourite food to the door. In a city like Dubai, where almost everyone is from somewhere else, that delivery bag often carries more than just a meal — it’s a taste of home, a box of comfort from a kitchen that understands our first language. 

We tap, we track, we tip. But what we rarely do is talk. The nature of the job means there’s hardly ever time to ask the man at the door why he came here, what he left behind, or what he dreams about when he’s not racing the clock.

In one Talabat rider, though, thousands are getting a glimpse of that conversation we never have. You’ve probably seen him on your feed doing Vicky Kaushal’s ‘Tauba Tauba’ hook step or Hrithik Roshan’s ‘Bang Bang’ moves in a bright orange jacket, helmet in hand.

That’s 26‑year‑old Sameer Michael, a Pakistani boy who came to Dubai five years ago “to do something big” and today finds himself known across the city as “that Talabat guy who dances”.

Sameer grew up in Faisalabad, Punjab, in a home that never really felt settled. “My childhood had a lot of family trauma,” he tells Khaleej Times in a sit-down conversation, accompanied by his wife, Kainaat. “From the beginning, things were not very stable for us financially. I somehow completed a little bit of my education, but after that I got into work. Alongside that, I was always into dance.” 

Weddings, school stages, college events, anywhere there was a speaker and a crowd, he was there. “In Pakistan, weddings are a big place for dance, so that culture was always around me too.”

But money was always tight. By the time he was 15, he understood exactly how difficult things were at home. “Because of financial problems, things became difficult for all of us,” he says.

Studying through Covid, he reluctantly finished college online, though his heart was somewhere else. He opened a small dance studio in Faisalabad, teaching boys and girls, shooting music and commercial videos. “But there is no real industry for it in Faisalabad,” he says. “Only some private students would come… it couldn’t become something big.”

From Faisalabad to Expo 2020 Dubai

Dance is what first brought him to Dubai. After winning a Nestlé reality show in Pakistan, he was picked to perform at Expo 2020. “During Expo, I came here with a team of boys and girls working under me and all the choreography was mine,” he recalls. “We were performing at the Pakistan Pavilion, doing cultural performances.”

The plan was temporary: a three‑month visit visa, a few months of shows and then off he’d go, back to his country. But like it does for many, Dubai got under his skin. “When I came here, I saw people who were active on social media, doing the kind of things I wanted to do,” he says. “That changed my mind. I cancelled the idea of going back and decided I would stay and try to build something here.”

However, when the Expo work ended, the fun of being in a new city vanished. “From the first day after my Expo work ended, I started bike riding work,” he says. First came a fixed job with KFC, then commission‑based gigs. For the last two years, his orange jacket has carried the Talabat logo.

“Our shifts can be 10 hours,” he explains. “Talabat tells us that in a month we have to complete a set number of hours. You can do it however you want,” That flexibility is why he stays. “It works because it gives me flexibility. That matters to me. I can do my content as well and I can work too.”

On some days, he’s just another rider trying to cover his targets. On others, he designs the day around the camera: “If I want to shoot, I practise for three hours, shoot for two hours. On days I don’t shoot or practise, I work full day. Then whatever is left behind, I cover the next day.”

When the dancing stopped

There was a time when he shut the door on dancing completely. Four years ago, Sameer lost his father to cancer. His family didn’t tell him about the illness until the very end because they didn’t want the son riding a bike in Dubai to lose focus or fall apart.

“Only when it became the last stage, I got a call and went back,” he says. “That was my last meeting with him.” After returning, “my whole focus became my mother and my family. I had nobody else. I dropped dance completely.”

The restart came almost by accident, through a workshop by Indian choreographer Himanshu Dulani. “I saw that he was coming and thought, let me just go once,” he says. And that workshop re‑opened a door he thought he’d shut for good. He made new contacts, found support and then Talabat announced a competition for riders. Whoever created the best video, the one that went viral, would win prizes and support.

“Everyone was making videos,” he laughs. “All the Talabat drivers were making videos. I wasn’t even making one. I felt nothing would happen anyway.” But his family refused to let him sit this one out. “They said, just make one video and upload it. So I made one.”

The video that changed everything

That one video turned the man on the bike into a face people recognised. “After that I started getting calls from everywhere,” he says. “A friend’s brother told me, ‘Your video is uploaded on Dubai pages.’ I didn’t even know where it had gone.”

The clip blew up, and Talabat crowned him the winner, handing him an iPhone 17 Pro. “Yes, I won it,” he smiles. “They made many ads with me and those are still uploaded on Talabat’s pages. Recently I also made another video in my delivery office and that crossed one million on Instagram.”

Studios that once didn’t have space for him also started calling him in for workshops. “A dance studio here also reached out and said, please come once, we want to arrange workshops for you,” he says. “That’s when I understood the power of social media. Through it, you can reach anywhere. Anyone can find you now.”

The online food ordering company has also been delighted to see the positive response from the community. "His energy and personality have brought smiles to so many people across the UAE," says Constantin Kodsi, director of logistics at Talabat UAE. "Sameer is a beloved member of the fleet and we are thrilled to see the wider community celebrating him too."

Dancing to his own tune

Today his DMs are busy. “Requests for individual collaborations also come in,” he says. “It’s great because Talabat doesn’t restrict that. In your own time, you can do what you want.” The company also pays him incentives for appearing in their shoots. 

With visibility has come a label he’s still learning to carry. “Nobody really knows my name first,” he admits. “They say, ‘That Talabat rider’. The day I leave the uniform, I know there may be a little downfall because people notice the uniform first. But I also know that will have to change someday. I want people to know me by my own name, too.”

Off the bike, his personal life has been going viral too. “We [him and Kainaat] are Christians, so we got married in a church,” he says. “I uploaded a church wedding video and that crossed five lakh [five hundred thousand] views. From then on I should have understood that social media is made for me.”

The match was arranged, the couple admits. “Please don’t think this is a love marriage,” he laughs. “Our families arranged the marriage, though she already knew of me and knew that I dance… And now she is also interested in making videos.”

'I want to have my own studio'

Between deliveries, content shoots and couple reels, there’s not much free time, but there is a clear plan. “For now I want to grow more in the market." Sameer says. “Then I want to move towards bigger projects… I want to eventually have my own studio. That is the dream.” Oh, and shooting a ‘Tauba Tauba’ dance reel with Vicky Kaushal is also most definitely on top of that wishlist. 

His message to anyone watching from the sidelines — a rider, a worker or just someone with a saved draft they’re too shy to post? “Just record and post,” he responds. “If it is in your fate, you will get it. Keep working hard and don’t stop. I stopped once and that was my biggest mistake. I still regret it… So I tell everyone now: don’t be scared, don’t stop, keep moving. You never know what will click.”