Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 4, 2018)

Akarsh Khurana’s directorial debut Karwaan, with Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan and Mithila Palkar as leads, features a song in which the trio will be seen rapping to a Malayalam number — the film revolves around a road trip through Kochi and its neighbouring cities.

Also featuring a smattering of English and Hindi, the song is written and composed by Slow Cheeta aka Chaitanya Sharma, who has also rapped for it. Incidentally, it was while working on a play directed by Akarsh a few years ago, when the musician met Masaan actress Shweta Tripathi, who he married last week in Goa. “Akarsh approached me for a fun rap song called ‘Dhai Kilo Bakwaas,’ it’s a play on the phrase ‘Dhai Kilo Ka Haath’ and talks about people who chicken out of fights,” he informed.

The song was filmed on the leads at a timber mill in Kochi. “We rounded up all the locals we could find in the crew and put them in a recording studio to get them to mouth Malayali slangs. So, we have Malayalam, a Hindi chorus, and rap bits in English, followed by Hindi rap, and back to Malayalam,” Chaitanya added.

Akarsh informs that the Malayalam bits in the song are sung by the film’s sound designer Anish John and executive producer Sanjeev Kumar Nair. “The rap is one of the most fun songs I’ve heard. I love some of Chaitanya’s singles and am trying to work with him wherever I can,” he said.