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Raftaar stops concert, tells off ‘serious’ faculty members for spoiling performance: ‘Aise show dekhna hai to side mei bathiye’

Indian rapper Raftaar called out the management for seating faculty between him and the students during a college fest performance.

3 min readNew DelhiDec 17, 2025 10:19 AM IST

Raftaar makes news by stopping concert mid-performance. (Photo: Instagram/Raftaar)

India is slowly becoming a very lucrative playground for live concerts, with major international artists flying in to perform at the biggest events. This pushes local talent to do more and more shows in order to compete with the fast and growing times. One of those artists is Raftaar, a rapper who recently courted controversy by questioning the organising committee of a college fest for seating the faculty close to the stage and pushing the students to the back.

Any kind of live performance is only successful when there is a connection between the audience and the talent. That is one of the biggest reasons why sometimes even established artists, who are capable enough to fill out stadiums, sometimes perform in small spaces, to make it a more personal experience. This is what Raftaar hoped for when he arrived with his crew to perform at a college fest, but the artist was left disappointed during his set.

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He stopped the performance midway and said that the faculty, who were sitting right in front of the stage, were not giving him any energy back, taking the zing out of the performance. He announced, “Problem yeh ho rahi hai ki energy na hum ek doosre mein transfer nahi kar pa rahe hai. Agle saal se meri faculty se request hai ki agar aapko aise baith ke pyaar se show dekhna hai toh side mein banaya kariye taki bacche log hamare sath enjoy kar sake (The problem is we aren’t able to transfer the energy to one another. I have a request for the faculty: if you want to sit and enjoy the show nicely, then make arrangements on one side so that the kids can enjoy it with us).”

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This statement invited cheers from the students, who could be seen in the background behind barricades. Raftaar further added, “I know I am here performing at a college fest, but I am a pretty good artist. I am just coming from performing in Abu Dhabi. Even the foreigners are happy to see us, but pata nahi kyun aap itne serious hai’ (I don’t know why you’re so serious).”

Raftaar’s last album, Hard Drive Volume 2, was well received by fans and critics. He collaborated with artists like Sikander Kahlon, Yashraj, Phenom, Sez, Badshah, Hiten and Deep Kalsi.

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