FB Live: The ‘Hichki’ Boys Rap for The Quint

Find out how these rappers made it to the silver screen with Rani Mukerji for company.

The Hichki boys at The Quint’s office.

(Photo: Almas Khateeb/The Quint)

The upcoming Bollywood film, Hichki stars some amazing talent. No, no, I am not talking about Rani Mukerji but these boys - Benjamin Yangal and Kalaivanan Kannan who play her students. Hichki is a film about a teacher who suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome and is put in charge of 14 students from impoverished backgrounds in an elite school. How does she deal with it? We caught up with some of these ‘students’ to talk about the film, and of course, Rani Mukerji herself!

But, hold on to your seats - they aren’t just child artists. Benjamin Yangal (MC Benn) is a Hindi rapper and an emcee from Dharavi’s junkyard band: Dharavi Rocks. Benjamin Yangal also raps about social causes, the most famous one being the Elphinstone Road stampede and bridge collapse that witnessed the tragic death of 22 people. Benjamin Yangal/MC Benn was also seen as a sidekick to Biswa Kalyan Rath in Amazon Prime’s Laakhon Mein Ek.

Kalaivanan Kannan (Artslord) is a rapper from Tamil Nadu, who raps unconventionally and fantastically in Tamil, and discovered his place in Dharavi Rocks. Kannan recently worked for the Tadhom Project with Viveick Rajagopalan, which is bringing together western rap sounds with traditional classic music in various languages like Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati and Malayalam, along with Hindi. The Tadhom Project is available on iTunes. Kannan is a powerhouse of talent as he has also rapped for Animal Planet’s Yeh Mera India. The song was composed by Ram Sampath, along with rappers Divine and Encore.

Dealing with various social issues like discrimination, racism, and sexism, Rani Mukerji-starrer Hichki is directed by Siddharth P Malhotra. Hichki is all set to release on 23 March.

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