Final November, it was a very hectic day for Tuhin Menon, CEO of Asiaville, a Chennai-based media-tech firm, when he spent your entire day between work calls and obligation delegation at his workplace at Palarivattom, Kochi, unable to take a break.

All Tuhin may consider was a plate of crisp, flaky parotta and a few scorching beef roast— a craving he glad instantly after work.

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The following day, Tuhin, who was at all times fascinated by lyric and poetry, wakened with an ode to Kerala parotta and beef, which he instantly jotted down. “I bear in mind waking up with a particular feeling, realising how meals may also help you get away from the monotony of day-to-day life,” says Tuhin. That is how a hectic day led to ‘Parotta & Beef,’ a rap track which has garnered over a million views on YouTube. The observe was produced by Sandeep Thulasidas a.ok.a Yestey, and distributed by Divo Music.

From media mogul to rapper

“I’m utterly shocked by the response. Essentially the most gratifying feeling is the outpouring of messages from folks, my acquaintances,” says Tuhin, who based Asiaville in 2019.

“Rapping is one thing that I’ve preferred since my early days. I earned a bachelor’s in communication and media research from New York College. I used to be doing gigs in New York with my associates from India, Pakistan, Australia, and Japan. We used to go to underground rap classes and take part in rap battles,” says Tuhin.

“After we based Asiaville, I bear in mind writing a couple of raps for one of many verticals too,” says Tuhin.

“Rap is the background music to my life,” says Tuhin, a fan of East Coast rap, which originated in New York. “Aside from The Infamous B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, I adopted artists corresponding to Massive El, Rakim, and Jurassic 5.” Tuhin factors out how the second half of the observe belongs to increase bap, a hip-hop subgenre from the late Eighties.

“The primary half of the track is a mass masala hook with parotta and beef, which appeals to the viewers and their love for the mixture,” says Tuhin.

The music video

The video is stuffed with loud colors and quirky settings to convey the “transcendental expertise” felt by the protagonist after taking a chew of parotta and beef.

The video was shot in three days, throughout Chennai in April. “This was technically 5 days’ price of shoot, however we needed to management the associated fee,” says Tuhin, whereas lauding the efforts of Vijay Siddhartha Ravindranaath, who directed the video.

“This was additionally my first music video. The problem was in moving into the minds of the three characters — an worker and two rappers. The basics, like understanding a personality arc and staying true to it, have been the identical. I realised, nevertheless, there is no such thing as a room for subtlety, it’s a must to have a sure swag, it’s a must to come throughout as hard-hitting,” says Tuhin, whose different appearing stints embody a task in Mohanlal-directorial Barozz3D, and theatre with Chennai-based theatre artist Michael Muthu.

The undercurrents

When requested in regards to the political undertones with regard to parotta and beef, Tuhin says his intention was to not push any narrative in regards to the dishes. “Emotion is common. The precise reference to parotta and beef resonates in Kerala. Disrupting the mundane with one thing magical is what I used to be attempting to say with this track. Parotta and beef simply occur to be that kind of mechanism for me, however another person can change it up with a meals of their selection.”

Highway forward

“I used to be nervous about ‘Parotta & Beef’, whether or not folks would perceive what we try to do with the message and the track itself. We’ve got ticked each bins,” says Tuhin, who has three tracks with Sandeep, who additionally composed the background rating for the hit Kannada film Su from So, lined up. “He and I’ve been cooking.”

“We all know Malayalam hip-hop is blowing up, and we’ve got a lot expertise. There’s an area for a Malayalam-and-English mixture, which is a large market to faucet into. I’ve not had the nice fortune of rising up in Kerala, so what I deliver to the desk is an appreciation for the sound. My influences are all American hip-hop,” says Tuhin.

Tuhin is presently engaged on AyeVee, an interactive leisure platform that has produced a number of internet collection that may be performed like a sport. “We’re additionally planning on together with gamification and interactivity to microdramas, that are reel-sized content material with a number of episodes.”

Revealed – September 09, 2025 06:43 pm IST