Meet Noida student-rapper behind music of Anurag Kashyap’s Cannes-bound film

Along with former Jamia Millia Islamia student, poet and musician Aamir Aziz, Bhatia has composed the music of Kashyap’s noir thriller, Kennedy — which will be screened at the 76th Cannes Film Festival this month. Besides Kennedy, there are three other films that have made it to Cannes besides Kennedy and include Yudhajit Basu’s Nehemich, Aribam Syam Sharma’s Ishanou and Kanu Behl’s Agra.

Clearly, there was more than serendipity at play. Bhatia’s song ‘Mr Kennedy’ was inspired by a wrestler who went by the same name. He forwarded the song to a friend in Mumbai, an intern in Kashyap’s production design team. When she opened Bhatia’s message, she was travelling with Kashyap, while the filmmaker was sleeping in his car — his usual napping space on a hectic day.

As the song came on, Kashyap woke up and told the intern that he had “found his music guy”, asking her to call Bhatia to Mumbai. “Fascinated by the fresh sonics and vibe,” Kashyap decided to incorporate the sound in his film, he adds.
“I had sent the unreleased song to my friend… probably for validation, and went for a swim. When I came back a couple of hours later, I had a bunch of missed calls and messages. It was crazy,” says Bhatia.

Two days later, Bhatia found himself in Mumbai, in Kashyap’s Versova home. “I have always been a little intimidated by film people. So I stood in AK’s living room, all scared. He came out, gave me a hug, and then we had lunch. All the discomfort was gone,” says Bhatia, who lived in the filmmaker’s home for the next few days.

Bhatia played him some of his music while Kashyap narrated elements of Kennedy’s story, which is inspired by the crime noir novels of French novelist Jean-Patrick Manchette and his comics created with comic artist Jacques Tardi, besides actor-director Jean-Pierre Melville’s cinema, and stars Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone. He also visited the sets of the film to understand its “sound palette and vibe”.

“I used to look at Bollywood with scepticism in terms of people singing and dancing on screen. But after working on this project, there has been a switch, probably because music in AK’s films is used differently. He asked me to support the script with the music,” says Bhatia, adding that most of the music was created in Kashyap’s home.

Bhatia has co-composed the music with Aziz, who came with his own ballad-style presentation of poetry, fusing together two different perceptions and personalities. Both have also written the lyrics and sung in the film. While the music is done, Bhatia and Aziz are now working on the full album for the film.

In Kennedy, besides the songs, Kashyap used elaborate orchestral music in the background score that was recorded by the illustrious Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in the historical city.

The film’s music supervisor, Ashish Narula, who’s previously worked on the sound of films such as Bombay Velvet, Andhadhun, Udta Punjab, and Manmarziyan among others besides designing the background score for Kennedy, says that he was completely fascinated by the work he saw from Bhatia. “It was the character of Raghav’s writing that fascinated us… Coming from Noida and describing this character from Mumbai, it was quite amazing. He got into the character’s head. And when I heard the scratch, I was blown away. Then I began to build the sound design on what Aamir and Raghav created together,” says Narula.

Bhatia says he grew up in a family that has nothing to do with music, except that he heard his father, who works in the service industry, play Michael Jackson on full volume. “That’s all I heard in my childhood and got obsessed with this powerful artiste,” says Bhatia, whose interest in rap commenced after he, along with his friend, failed his accounts exam in Class 11 and had to attend extra classes in school.

“He (the friend) would just sit at the back and write rap in class. I had written some poetry in English. I asked him to spit it (do freestyle rap). That’s when I had my calling. So, we started writing rap together,” says Bhatia, who soon realised that Hindi, a language he mostly speaks, would be more up his alley. Around the same time, one of his friends who had moved to Atlanta — a prominent and significant nerve centre for hip hop — began to send him music from there. “That made me realise that this is what I wanted to do,” says Bhatia, who is now working on new music.

“My parents finally think that I have a skill set that can be used for something,” he adds, with a laugh.