Rinosh George’s catchy ‘This is Bengaluru’ music video is going viral right now. Inspired by the lives of his friends in the IT industry, 23-year-old Rinosh decided to write a song and it then naturally took the shape of a full-fledged music video.
All the essential Bengaluru-isms as seen by the outsider are there in it — cribbing about traffic jams topping the list, as does praising the city’s perfect weather, with the essential smattering of Kannada thrown in about the “ooru”. And then there’s everything else in between — like working late nights on weekdays v/s late-night weekend parties, living in S.G Palya, smoking up, not getting laid, the job without a promotion, the desire to buy a bike or car, the grumpy shuttle cab driver at the gate every morning, the shiny malls, taking visiting relatives to Lal Bagh, the auto-drivers, transgenders, and a life centred around Brigade Road, and M.G. Road.
Rinosh, who started off as a DJ in 2009, moved on in 2011 to writing and composing on his own, realising he would rather have people listen and dance to his songs!
He dreams of a career as a musician and actor. He did a college romance song earlier, called ‘Azaghe’ in Kannada-Tamil-Malayalam-English, and later collaborated on a rap song, among the many others he did. Is he also a techie, like his friends? “No, no, no!” he’s quick to protest.
“This song is the story of the life of an IT guy. I am a Mallu, born and raised in Bengaluru, and I saw a whole lot of my classmates transformed into robots the moment they joined the IT industry — those who slog through the week and party hard on weekends…who want the weekend to play on an endless loop. I’m surrounded by people who live a life of pressure,” says Rinosh.
The idea of the song came when he was driving home late one night and thought the roads looked empty like the Bengaluru of yore.
“And then I was thinking ‘This is Bengaluru’ and the second line ‘And you can call me guru ’ (a common term to address people) popped up…I am one of those guys who keeps singing to himself,” he laughs “I’ve met a whole lot of people from other states who come here and make Bengaluru home, miss their towns, put up grand FB posts about going back to their place for a break and very soon start cribbing on FB that they miss the perfect Bengaluru weather! I just saw things from their perspective.”
The whole video hinges on the phrase “But there’s something I like about this ooru…” and progresses to people calling it “ nama ooru ” (our city).
The music video was shot over a week in various recognisable locations in the city. “Almost every one featured in the video is a friend. But I also wanted the public to come in, so I asked some people on the road, auto-drivers, and transgenders who are otherwise on the margins of our existence to join in.”
Written, composed and performed by Rinosh the video was shot and edited by Bharath Parashuram.
The video has over 1,60,000 views on YouTube and another 60,000 through Facebook.
