Watch Bedroc Boogie’s Firsthand Experience As An Underground Hip Hop Dancer

As part of collaboration between Homegrown and Pearl Academy, students of the latter were guided to create live industry projects based on street culture in India. As part of their course, they gave shape to various media productions including documentaries and podcasts.

Hip-hop’s rich history rooted in culture and tradition took over the world and lent it inspiration to mould it as their own. India’s hip-hop scene has been vibrant for years, and is yet in its nascent stages.

Exploring this culture in India is the documentary, Under Grounded –– it converses of the journey of Abhibhav Sharma, also known as Bedroc Boogie. Having been an underground hip-hop dancer for almost 12 years, Abhibhav’s insight into this world is deeply personal.

As part of a project, students of Pearl Academy created this documentary from scratch with the idea, ‘Street culture and how different artists managed to stay relevant during the pandemic. It will document their journey, struggles, and future prospects’. Their aim was to ‘feature underground artists and talk to them about going against the mainstream’.

Explaining his name, he says, “Bedrock is the lowermost soil layer of the Earth –– my name suggests me to stay grounded.” It reminds him to never forget his roots, where he came from, and to what he owes his life.

Abhibhav sheds light on how today’s hip-hop culture in India is shaped by how the television narrated it –– its reality, however, is much different. His aim has always been to make hip-hop more accessible, and even organised a cypher with the entry fees of just INR 50 so everyone could afford it –– it ended up being a huge hit!

Similar to other fields, the lockdown posed a challenge to hip-hop, too. The aspect of physical presence, which is of great importance was completely missing. Luckily, as Abhibhav would agree, it is picking back up.

‘Under Grounded’ is a tale of a dancer, yet it tells us how his world holds meaning that is unique and special to him –– much like the story of almost every underground artist in India.

The documentary was a collaborative project by Khushi Choudhari, Rushil Pradhan, Jayati Arora, Manya Awasthy, Manya Sachdeva and Ragini Gupta. Kudos to the team!

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‘Dharavi Hustle’: Exploring Mumbai’s Growing Hip-Hop Culture In Bajaao’s Documentary

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