Be your own biggest fan ever: Brodha V

If you can point out one person who had a huge role to play in putting Indian rap music up on the pedestal, Brodha V is definitely one of them! Vighnesh Shivanand, better known by his stage name, Brodha V, is someone who lets his words and the mic do the talking. This Kanchipuram born, now namma Bengaluru boy has given us many timeless hits like Aathma Raama, Aigiri Nandini, Vainko and Basti Bounce (both featuring Jordindian), Azhage (Fallin) and so many more! Having collaborated with some of the biggest names in the industry like KR$NA, Vishal Dadlani, Benny Dayal, Raftaar and Anirudh Ravichander, Brodha V is back again with another single featuring one of the biggest upcoming talents (also) from Tamil Nadu — Paal Dabba. This latest creation is titled as DATN (Dance Away The Night) and is a quintessential Brodha V track, with a combination of Tamil and English rap lyrics and addresses the trials and tribulations both the artistes have faced in their respective careers. During the shoot of the video for the song, we paid a quick visit to the set to rope in Brodha V for an exclusive chat, talking about the song, his collaboration with Paal Dabba and lots more.

Take us through the idea of the song and the music video that goes along with it?

The track is one of those very futuristic kinds of songs where we are basically talking about the feelings of an underdog trying to come and switch the power dynamics. It’s like a person enters a room full of powerful people and lets everybody know, “I’m here. I’m here to stay and the power is now mine.” I think this is something that anybody who feels like an underdog, anybody who’s gone through this can relate to.

Paal Dabba is one of the biggest upcoming rap artistes from South India. Tell us about this collaboration with him and how it came about?

I have loved Paal Dabba and his work for a while. It was sort of serendipitous and the idea for us to work together kind of stemmed from Vijay Deverakonda suggesting we work together. It all came together from there and the song happened and it has evolved so much over the last few months and the final product is something I’m very proud of.

How would you say that this song is different from the ones you have worked on before?

I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell you that. I think every song of mine is different in its own way, whether it be production or my style of writing, it’s probably a little more evolved now. I’ll leave that to the people to see how different it is or how unique it is. As an artiste, I honestly wouldn’t be able to sit and dissect things and tell you how different what is. I just create whatever comes to my mind, whatever I’m feeling at that moment.

We have heard that the video of the song is quite interesting. Tell us more about that?

The video is set in the future, many many years from now and we’re doing a whole cyberpunk world. But imagine India in a cyberpunk world and a lot of Indian imagery and stuff like that. It’s a whole underdog story. The whole song is about how people fight power with true expression and the expression is through dance in this video.

The team that you have worked with on the video has also worked on movies like Aavesham and Wonder Woman — how did that collaboration come into place?

I was just chilling with my director and we were just brainstorming a couple of ideas. We thought that a dance video and something with action choreography to tell the story would be really cool. Then we came up with this whole cyberpunk concept. We were like: if we are doing an action sequence, a little more international, a little more realistic — we need somebody really, really good. Aavesham was a movie that I really loved. The action and everything was really amazing. So, we hit them up because we wanted to make a video which looks good, authentic and delivers that kind of quality that only movies can hope to achieve. I wanted to give it a shot. They were really keen on working on this because of the idea and that’s how everything fell into place.

Tell us about your love for directing?

I don’t know if people know this, but apart from music, I did study filmmaking as well and I always had this passion for directing. Maybe even a movie someday, I don’t know. Music is a very hectic and time-taking process. Right now, music is getting really busy. But as and when I get a chance, I would love to provide some ideas for concepts behind the camera too. As of now, I’ve been getting my hands into music video direction and stuff. So, this one is quite ambitious. We’ll see where this goes from here.

How do you strike a balance between directing and being off-camera and being on-camera?

I’m mostly just off-camera. I’m barely in front of the camera. It’s two different personas. One of them would rather be zoned. I know I’m an artiste who makes music and delivers music. That’s a different persona altogether. Whereas, when I’m in the studio, any space where being creative is required, be it music or be it writing or be it writing a script, you have to be grounded. That’s where you leave all your personas, your ego and everything behind and approach the subject with as much humility as possible for the greater good of the art.

Through the years, how have you grown as an artiste?

As an artiste, you learn a lot. You learn a lot of production techniques. You learn from your mistakes. You get better, even as a writer, in terms of your musicality. I think with time, I’ve grown, not just as a person, but also as an artiste. I think that kind of gives it a little more complexity. When you take my earlier days, I was purely just hungry to put something out. Right now, I can be a little more calculated about things. I can sit and take some time and figure out what works and what doesn’t work. Back in the day, probably I would have just been very impulsive. I kind of understand music a little bit better now. But there is still a long way to go.

Finally, one mantra you follow in life?

Be your own biggest fan ever and own it. The more people see you stand for yourself and stand for your content, everybody feeds off that aura and energy. The more confident you are about yourself, everybody is going to come to you. All good things will happen as long as you don’t doubt yourself.

DATN (Dance Away The Night) is now streaming on audio and video platforms.

Email: alwin@newindianexpress.com

X: @al_ben_so