The Kumar Method is one of the fastest-growing AI video trends on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. The original Kumar Method video has surpassed 33 million views and inspired hundreds of recreations across social platforms, with the format collectively generating well over 100 million views.

While the finished videos look like they require a professional film crew, they're surprisingly accessible to recreate. With one selfie, a short talking-head video, and Kapwing's AI tools, you can generate consistent cinematic scenes, animate them, and edit everything together in a single project.

In this guide, I'll walk through the entire workflow—including every copy-and-paste prompt used to recreate the trend.

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How to Make the Kumar Method Video

• Step 1: Write Your Script
• Step 2: Film Yourself Reading the Script
• Step 3: Build a Consistent AI Character
• Step 4: Generate the Cinematic AI Scenes
• Step 5: Assemble Everything in Kapwing

Step 1: Write Your Script

The Kumar Method isn't tied to a single script; plenty of creators have put their own spin on the format. However, there is a relatively consistent structure throughout: a serious introduction, an unexpected reveal, and a ironic punchline that contrasts with the cinematic visuals.

If you're recreating the original trend, this template is a great place to start:

1. "This is a message to all [YOUR NICHE]."
2. "My name is [YOUR NAME]."
3. "I'm a [CONTRASTING JOB], and I'm going to become the biggest [THING] in the world."
4. Finish with your punchline or reveal.

The more seriously you deliver the first three lines, the stronger the contrast will be when the punchline arrives. Once you understand that formula, you can experiment with your own scripts while keeping the same overall pacing.

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Step 2: Film Yourself Reading The Script

The Kumar Method typically begins with a simple talking-head video of you delivering your script in a completely deadpan, serious tone. The rest of the video then alternates between this footage and cinematic AI-generated shots, creating the contrast that defines the trend.

Keep your setup simple: position your phone at eye level, and stand or sit in front of a plain wall. You can light yourself from one side to create a more dramatic look. Wearing dark, minimal clothing—like the black turtleneck used in the original trend—also helps match the aesthetic.

Deliver the first part of your script with complete confidence, pausing briefly between each line. Then, for the final line, subtly break the serious tone by revealing the joke or showing a more relaxed side of your personality.

Don't worry about making this footage look cinematic—the AI-generated scenes you'll create later provide most of the visual impact.

Step 3: Build a Consistent AI Character

The Kumar method videos look like they were professionally filmed and color graded, with dramatic lighting and polished compositions. Luckily, you can recreate the same cinematic aesthetic without professional equiptment using KAI.

The first step is creating a reusable AI character. Start by uploading one clear headshot—or a high-quality frame from the talking-head video you recorded in the previous step. Then generate a clean, front-facing identity portrait using the prompt below.

Next, use that portrait as a reference to generate three full-body studio images: one facing the camera, one in side profile, and one from behind.

Keeping your head visible in every image gives the model enough reference material to preserve your facial features across future generations.

Once you've generated all four images, save them as a new character inside Kai. You'll use this saved character throughout the rest of the guide to generate cinematic scenes that look like they feature the same professionally filmed subject.

To create a new character, type @ in the chat-box or press the @ button in the bottom left corner. In the pop-up menu that appears, select "Add character".

From there, upload your generated reference photos, and add a short optional description.

Step 4: Generate the Cinematic AI Scenes

With your character ready, it's time to generate the cinematic shots that define the Kumar Method.

For our video, we replicated Kumar's poses and scenes with AI. To generate these images, simply replace @kumar with the name of your saved character in each prompt below.

Generate Cinematic Starting Frames

Rather than relying on one long video prompt, we'll generate five images, that will be animated into short videos.

If you want to recreate another creator's composition that isn't included, you can take a screenshot from their video and upload it to ChatGPT or Claude. Ask it to describe the framing, lighting, camera angle, and subject position. You can often use that description as the starting point for your own AI prompt.

Generate Your Starting Frames Into Videos

Once your images are generated, animate each one into a short four-second clip.

The biggest mistake people make is asking AI to animate too much. The Kumar Method feels cinematic because the movement is incredibly restrained. Instead of walking, gesturing, or making exaggerated expressions, the subject usually remains almost perfectly still while the camera slowly pushes in.

The video prompts below are designed to recreate that look, using subtle movements like blinking, breathing, or gently shifting weight.

Since each animation can take several minutes to generate, it's worth starting a new generation for each image rather than waiting for one to finish before beginning the next.

Step 5: Edit Everything Together in Kapwing

At this point, you have everything you need: your talking-head footage, AI-generated scenes, and animated clips. The final step is assembling them inside the Kapwing editor.

Start by opening the Kumar Trend Video Template and creating your own copy. The timeline is already structured to match the original trend, so most of the editing involves replacing the placeholder assets with your own.

Replace each talking-head clip with your recorded footage, aligning each sentence of your script to the corresponding section of the timeline. Then replace the placeholder AI clips with your generated animations.

To easily replace assets in the Kapwing editor, simply right click on them in the timeline, and select the "Replace" option.

Next, open the Subtitles panel and select Auto Subtitles. When prompted, choose your talking-head clip as the audio source rather than the template audio, then generate subtitles.

Go through the transcript and clean up any mistakes. Delete extra caption fragments so that each caption contains one complete sentence and begins as you start speaking. For the main captions, set:

• Font: Arial
• Size: around 55
• Color: Red
• Animation: Reveal

The final CTA uses a slightly different style. Create a second speaker so you can customize it independently, then use:

• Font: Arial
• Size: around 42
• Color: White
• Position: Centered just below your chin
• Drop shadow: Slight blur
• Animation: Reveal

Option: Create the "Text Behind Your Head" Effect

One of the signature effects in the Kumar Method is having captions appear behind the speaker.

To recreate it, duplicate your talking-head clip and place the copy directly on the layer above the original. Right-click the duplicate, choose Detach Audio, and delete the duplicated audio track.

Next, open Effects and apply Remove Background. Because this cutout now sits above the subtitles, the text appears to pass naturally behind your head.

If captions accidentally disappear behind the wrong layer, open the Layers menu, right-click your talking-head clip, and select Bring to Front.

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