Bohemia - I’m a musical scientist

He made a Bollywood debut in 2009 with the Akshay Kumar starrer Chandni Chhowk to China, and that was all it took for Bohemia to make a mark on the music scene here. He was then roped in for the recent Bollywood film Desi Boyz as well. And though he enjoyed his stint with Bollywood, he strictly feels that he cannot be tagged as a “Bollywood boy” yet. For now, this rapper is busy preparing for the launch of his upcoming album 1000 Thoughts next month.

“I’ve been rapping for my new album and busy shooting music videos. In fact I’ve just come back from finishing a shoot,” says Bohemia as he lets us into his upcoming album. “This one is for my hardcore fans! Although like each time, this too has my trademark— I don’t give a damn attitude,” he adds. The album is out and out rap — “Punjabi rap”. “I consider myself a musical scientist and my work an experiment — an experiment I did at the age of 11 — mixing the Pakistani Punjabi tunes with California culture. And this bottle of experiment exploded in 2003 and I became this Punjabi and Hindi rapper. Some call it desi, some call it hip hop… I don’t like any of these labels.”

 

Despite his Punjabi roots and Bollywood connect, Bohemia holds no plans of making film music his priority — and the rapper makes no bones about it either! “I do not watch Bollywood films. In fact I don’t even have many desi friends,” he says. “I hate when those kids go ‘oh he’s a Bollywood actor’. Nahi hu yaar main… I find it too cheesy. I respect Akshay Kumar, I have worked with him, he’s a good friend and I love his work. And calling myself a Bollywood actor is like putting me in his league… look at his body of work and mine — just three movies,” he continues, “The reason Bollywood likes me is because I’ve been like a fresh breath of air and Bollywood needs it. But I don’t think directors here like me… they’re scared of me (laughs)… because I’m a deep, dangerous artiste. For them I’m like this kal ka bachha who’s achieved daunting success.”