Good to see hip hop being recognised by film industry, says Divine

Rapper Vivian Fernandes, who is known by his stage name Divine and whose life is one of the inspirations for Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, feels good to see that cinema is recognizing hip-hop music. Divine, who played a heavy number in Anurag Kashyap's Mukkebaaz, feels glad to work with the filmmaker and thanks cinema for appreciating hip-hop music.

"'Mukkebazz' is a very good film and Anurag Kashyap has been one of my favourites for a while. I'm quite glad that my first foray into Bollywood was with this film. "I don't think there is a bigger platform in India in terms of reach than cinema so it's great that real Hip-Hop is being recognised by the industry," the rapper, who performed at the OnePlus Community Meet Up in Mumbai on Saturday, told IANS.

"Gully Boy" is inspired by the lives of Mumbai street rappers like him and Naezy and Divine, who entered the music industry in 2011, says he is excited about the film.

"I've been excited from the time the film was announced. I think Ranveer (Singh) was the best choice to play the lead in 'Gully Boy'. He has completely immersed himself into the genre and everything associated with him as you can see from many videos of him which went viral in the past few months," he said.

So how does he see the culture of rap booming in India? "Hip-Hop and Rap has been present for a while in India but it's only in the past couple of years that real Hip-Hop started getting recognition, amongst the public. A lot of Indian rappers have received recognition through social media and reality shows," he said.

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