Music
6 Indian beatboxers you need to know
Karun Krishna and Sunil Suresh, members of Bengaluru-based beatbox collective Beats Club, write about some of India’s best beatboxers.
Indian beatboxing has evolved from ‘boots and cats’ (basic beatboxing exercises) to high level competitions and international representation.
Karun Krishna – core member of Beats Club and a much sought-after MC – reckons that there are hundreds of beatboxers in every Indian city at this point. Having placed third in the first-ever Indian Beatbox Championship in 2016 and hosted several hip-hop and beatboxing events around the country, he has been a well-known member of the community since he started beatboxing in 2013.
Alongside Sunil Suresh – who has been beatboxing for over 10 years and co-founded Beats Club to promote the art form through battles and community-building jams – Karun writes about some of India’s most promising beatboxers and what makes them standout.
Bhavesh Sharma aka B-Cube (Mumbai)
He was introduced to beatboxing at age 13 when he saw a YouTube video of Jospeh Poolpo, a beatboxer who auditioned for Nouvelle Star (French edition of Pop Idol). Bhavesh won the first-ever Indian Beatbox Championship in 2016 in Nagaland, which got him a lot of recognition. Later on, he joined Mumbai-based band Euphony. The band’s drummer had recently quit so he provided the percussion for the band through beatboxing. Euphony’s videos with Bhavesh went viral and led them to participating in reality television show Dil Hai Hindustani, where they finished as runners-up. Bhavesh’s approach and contributions to how Euphony has rearranged famous Indian songs has been one of the reasons the band has been praised.
Divyansh Kacholia aka DVK (Jaipur)
As a music lover who also fell in love with beatboxing, DVK has always seeked to bring a strong Indian flavour to his beatboxing. He met the Bulgarian 2012 beatboxing world champion Skiller and the interaction inspired him to make his own music using beatboxing and unique Indian sounds. He was also a finalist on the reality TV show Dil Hai Hindustani, and a personal favourite of judge Sunidhi Chauhan, who invited him to perform at some of her shows. Since then, he has collaborated with big names like Benny Dayal, Sukwinder Singh, Mika Singh and Shaan. He has also fulfilled his goal which was to be a headliner on a big stage as a beatboxing and not just an opening act.
Aaditya Dilbaghi aka Aady (Ahmedabad)
He loves to express himself through beatboxing and being able to create an escape for audiences through his performances. He won the Loopstation category at the Indian Beatbox Championship and represented India at the 2019 Asian Beatbox Championship. He says that he fulfilled a dream when he got to judge the Loopstation category of Colossal – a national-level beatbox championship – alongside his idol Italian beatboxer Andrea Cimitan aka NME. He has performed headlining acts for Ahmedabad Design Week and Garba Bloc Party, where he remade garba music on his Loop Station. He has been creating his own music by mixing techniques of sound production and beatboxing, and has also been teaching beatboxing in some Mumbai institutes.
Shivaraj Natraj (Bengaluru)
Shivaraj is a Bengaluru-based beatboxer who grew up in Oman. With his family having a strong base in Indian classical music, he was trained in Carnatic music at a young age. He was introduced to beatboxing by his friends while he was preparing for his 10th board exams. After his exams, he returned to India for his pre-university course and stayed in a hostel called Sri Rama Krishna Vidyarthi Ashram. A monk at the ashram encouraged him to find a common ground between the theories of classical music and his love for beatboxing. He came up with the idea of Konnakol Beatboxing as a pure and novel blend between the musical art forms. He started posting videos online of his Konnakol Beatboxing, alongside renowned musician Manjunath BC. His unique musical style got him an invite to Italian convention La Voce Artistica and led him to form a progressive-Carnatic band called Project Mishram.
Dilip Sakhrani (Bengaluru)
Dilip discovered beatboxing when he was trying to mimic the Armin Van Buuren track ‘Ping Pong’. He soon honed his beatboxing skills and started bagging victories in battles around the country, especially those hosted as part of college events. He became the first Indian to win an international beatbox competition when he became the Swissbeatbox Camp Student Solo Battle 2019 Champion in Krakow, Poland. This was a competition hosted by the world’s most popular beatbox organisation and got him global recognition. He was ranked 15th out of 250 entries in the World League Solo category of the Grand Beatbox Battle 2020, one of the biggest beatbox competitions in the world. He is extremely well-known in the Indian beatbox community and one of India’s leading names in the international scene.
Afsar Syed (Bengaluru)
Afsar’s first experience with beatboxing was watching a video of his friends perform for a college crowd. Watching the audience response in the video inspired him to take up beatboxing. He excelled on a competitive scale, winning various prestigious beatbox titles in college events and hip-hop jams. Among his biggest title wins are the first-ever Colossal Elite Division Championship, organized by Beats Club, and champion at B on Channel V, held at V-Fest Goa 2015. His immense battle skills and unbiased view on the talent have made him one of the most sought-after judges for competitions among the Indian beatbox community.
About Colossal Squad Battles
Colossal is one of India's biggest beatbox battles and jams, organised by Beats Club since 2017. The jam had a one-of-a-kind online tournament called Colossal Squad Battles on 14th June 2020. Teams of four beatboxers went up against each other as part of the online competition. The winning squad was Ahhh Shittt with members Abhay Dubey (Bbxr Abhay) from Kolkata, Ricky Mehta (Bbxr Armeht) from Mumbai, Shawn Michael (Bbxr Shawn) from Bengaluru and Emmanuel D'Silva (Bbxr KnightmarE) from Bengaluru.