Bollywood movie premiering in Berlin highlights India's hip-hop scene
Actor Ranveer Singh said India
could be on the cusp of a musical revolution with the kind of Hindustani hip-hop
that is the subject of his new movie premiering at the Berlin Film Festival.
"Gully Boy",
directed by India's Zoya Akhtar, tells the fictional tale of Murad (Singh), a
student who lives in a slum and ends up temporarily substituting for his
injured father as chauffeur for a wealthy family.
He discovers a talent for
rapping and uses it to vent his anger about poverty and the chasm between rich
and poor, writing lines about babies cowering next to skyscrapers and wealthy
people's cars being big as poor people's homes.
"This film is something
that takes a genre of music that has essentially been underground in India so
far and brings it to the mainstream," Singh said.
"I want this to be the
beginning of something because I really think Hindustani hip-hop is a
revolution. It's more than just music. It's a musical and social
revolution," he said.
Singh said he grew up
listening to rap music and it "feels amazing" to have recorded five
songs for the film's soundtrack.
The coming-of-age film depicts
a young man who refuses to accept what his father has taught him - that he
cannot afford big dreams and should get a stable office job - and who defies
class conventions by secretly dating Safeena (Alia Bhatt), a doctor's daughter.
Safeena is confident and violently
attacks potential love rivals while Murad is a more sensitive and reserved
character.
"Traditionally our films
and gender dynamics are structured very differently," Singh said. "So
that's an aspect of our film that we're very proud of."
He said he initially wanted to
become an actor to be a virtuous hero with big muscles who beats other men up
and stands up for what is right, but Akhtar had brought out a part of him on
screen that was usually reserved for his friends and family.
"Zoya kind of very literally
and metaphorically peels away all of those layers to kind of tap into a very
real, very authentic side of me ... a little bit more quiet, more reserved,
more introverted and more internally feeling sensitive, vulnerable," he
said.
The movie - shot in Mumbai -
features slum dwellers picking through rubbish, abandoned children preparing
drugs to earn their keep and homes made from corrugated iron alongside wealthy
Indians attending posh parties, modern skyscrapers and a group of
camera-wielding British tourists visiting a slum.
It is one of around 400 films screening at this year's Berlinale
festival, which runs until Feb. 17.