How Salman Iqbal quietly built one of South Asia's most influential TV empires

Khaleej Times

15-04-2025

When Salman Iqbal moved to London in the early 2000s for family reasons, he had no idea how his career would shift in a way that would forever change many landscapes. With a finance background and a quiet, reserved personality, Salman Iqbal's main work was overseeing business decisions in his family. Media and television were a far cry from his interests.
The nephew of Abdur Razzak Yaqoob, the founder of ARY Gold in the UAE, Salman Iqbal, was having a business dinner in the UK when his father called him and told him, "I've just bought a TV channel." Salman laughed, "CNN or BBC?".
Iqbal's father purchased a 12-hour TV channel in the UK, which Salman turned into a 24-hour TV station and later grew to create seven more TV channels. "My father was the marketeer," Salman Iqbal recalls. "He created the brand ARY Gold and Jewelry. In 2002, when Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid established the first Media City in the Middle East, the whole Gulf was in awe. He invited us, and we immediately flew to answer his call to establish ARY in Dubai Media City. I moved 150 British Pakistanis to Dubai, where the journey started. We had multiple TV stations in Dubai after that."
ARY and Salman Iqbal's connection to the UAE goes a long way. He studied, grew up, and continues to have his vast business and his close friends and family here. "The platform Dubai gives you is so free," he says frankly. "The only competition you have is your competition. There is no agenda and no violence; the only thing you need to be scared of is not performing. That's why our relationship has been so strong, and from the very early days, if you look at the earliest events in Dubai, the prime sponsor with Khaleej Times is ARY. Concerts, cricket matches. My father would be at the forefront, and I would quietly be dealing with business and finance," he laughs. "I didn't go to parties or have many social engagements, and I had four friends I still have. That's who I was."
Keeping to himself and avoiding publicity hasn't changed much about him in all these years. And perhaps that's why failure doesn't scare Salman Iqbal. "What's the worst that can happen? Fewer people to meet? I am happy with that." That said, Iqbal is still very vigilant about how media impacts the world. "I was 24 when I started the TV channel, and I'm 50 now. I am now a father of a boy, he is 21. These things teach you because whatever you show impacts so many people. One wrong analysis, one false ticker, and it can wreak havoc. Doing this kind of job has a lot of responsibility. I don't sleep."
So what defines ARY Digital's ethos now? "If you look at the beginnings of ARY, all my members of the TV station were non-PTV folk," Iqbal explains. "I didn't want to replicate the PTV thought process; I got people who had nothing to do with TV. Jerjees Seja was the only CEO doing some production, but apart from that, I got newcomers to work with me. I learned from them, and they learned from me. All my colleagues have been with me for 25 years, and they showed the world what they wanted to see."
Salman Iqbal expands on ARY's ethos and says, "I want to show what people want to see. We target the masses. When we launched Jeeto Pakistan, a certain class refused to accept it. They called it a copycat, a cheap show. But then there was a time when the same class watched this show secretly. Then, there came a time when they wanted to go to this show, but they didn't want to be photographed on the set. But now, all social classes come to the show, and they want to tweet about it and make Instagram posts about it. What I believe I've done in the last 25 years is that we've brought all socioeconomic classes to the TV simultaneously. We do the largest Ramadan transmission in the world in South Asia. Our reality television show Tamasha gets so much traction. And we get messages from all over the world about our dramas. I'm the president of the World Memon Organization, and when I visit global events, I meet people who can't even speak in Urdu, but they love our dramas, and they're constantly discussing those stories."
How does the feedback loop work for him now? The feedback loop today has undoubtedly gone into hyperdrive, given the age of social media. "In the beginning, we learned by doing," he explains. "We were erratic for the first eight years before we found our footing. We worked on the masses. So yes, I take feedback, but I think I know something about it at this age. And now, sometimes, I feel feedback has become more of a criticism for the sake of criticism. Some people have no idea what it takes to do most things, and it is very easy to point a finger now than it ever was before."
What's in store for ARY next? "We have purchased Qubool Hai, a fintech company that provides 360-degree services for marriage, and what's unique is that parents will also be involved in the whole match-making process, and we will also be funding the marriages and catering to its event needs."
ARY also has big plans in the UAE. "We are the founder developers in the UAE," Iqbal says, "and want to return to it."