The first ever Great Indian Beatbox Festival comes to an end, after entertaining the audience with a completely unique beatbox music concert. This festival was a major highlight for audiophiles as globally renowned beatboxers BERYWAM crew and Mad Twinz, and Indian heartthrobs DVK and Voctronica performed at the concerts, giving the audience a new perspective of music, and at the same time, helping many realize the new form of art they can pursue as a mainstream career.
Speaking about the success of the festival, Raka Vee Director of BBXINDIA gave his insights about the event. Excerpts
Q. Please give a brief description about The Great Indian Beatbox Festival, which held at Mumbai, on the 17th and 18th of December?
A. The Great Indian Beatbox Festival was planned to be an event that will bring the art of beatboxing to the masses and I am proud to say that it was a great success. We aimed to portray the true potential of beatboxing to the Indian audience and it was not only received well, but loved for the creativity and sheer talent of the performers. We carried out the fourth edition of the Indian Beatboxing Championship and found great talent to represent India in international beatboxing competitions. The festival was an effort to bring together the community and the audience to enjoy and needless to say, it was a hit.
Q. After completing education in civil engineering, post graduation and working in corporate for 5 years what inspires you to expand BBXINDIA?
A. Indeed, I was a corporate employee for more than 5 years but the artist in me was never truly satisfied with the job alone. Although I was paid well and things were going in the exact trajectory I expected them to be, I felt a void in regard to my contribution towards art. I love to dance, sing and beatbox, and somewhere, the corporate 9-5 was limiting my efforts, so I chose to quit my job and dedicate my life to the art. And this is where I built BBXINDIA with the passion and vision in my mind to make beatboxing a mainstream art form in India and provide a bigger platform to showcase their talent. My goal has remained to boost the art form and make things happen for the Indian subcontinent.
Q. Do you feel beatbox can become as popular as rap and other forms of art in India?
A. It would be wrong to say that beatboxing is something very new in India, but speaking from the perspective of exposure, yes, it is a relatively new art form in India. Beatboxing got some mainstream exposure in the film Gullyboy, and since then many started exploring it more. The pandemic was the turning point for beatboxing where people started practicing this art form dedicatedly and the outcomes were amazing. We saw a steep growth in the population interested in this art form and when DVK won India’s Got Talent title, it was clear to many that India is ready to accept beatboxing as a mainstream art. And today, in the post-pandemic era, a good number of people know beatboxing and are interested in choosing this art form over many other streams, and it makes me elated.
DVK, India’s Got Talent Winner (Beatboxer) also gave his views about the event.
Q. How do you feel after becoming the Face of the Year for The Great Indian Beatbox Festival?
A. What can I say, it is certainly an amazing feeling and I feel honored to be a part of India’s first chapter of the Beatboxing Festival and Championship. I believe that the past few years of Indian Beatboxing have been really crazy with many highs and lows, and how BBXINDIA’s initiative to make it mainstream is no less than a revolution in the history of Indian beatboxing. It is an amazing feeling to be a part of it, witness the history in making,and see beatboxers from across the country coming forward and showing their skills. Surely, it was a learning experience for me, and was very excited to be Face of the Year for The Great Indian Beatbox Festival.
Q. What is your future ambition after becoming the Face of the Year for The Great Indian Beatbox Festival?
A. My future ambitions are not limited to myself but they reach out to the whole beatboxing community out there. For myself, I aim to create more and more music and perhaps go for corporate beatboxing as well. And when it comes to the community of beatboxers, I want the world to notice and recognize the rising talent of beatboxers and work towards spreading the art of beatboxing in the best way possible. The Great IBF proved to be a great help in working along the same lines, helping the Indian audience realize the true potential of beatboxing and giving them the identity they deserved. The festival proved to be the bridge between the Indian audience and beatboxers, where the beatboxers were seen and heard in their true colors of excellence.