How a brother's death made Vicky Manhas a sensational rap star of Chenab...

While talking with the Firstpost Vicky Manhas said, ‘I never received any coaching or joined any Academy. I am a self-taught artist, who has trained himself in audio editing and sound recording through YouTube tutorials.’

Bikram Singh Manhas, a 28 years old rapper of Chenab Valley, Doda has become a household name in the region for his brilliant singing talent. Manhas is famous by his nickname Vicky Manhas in his hometown Thathri, Doda.

At a time, when Punjabi rap has taken the lead over the other languages, Manhas is singing in his local “Bhaderwahi” language to promote it. Manhas started his journey in 2015 when he released his first Bhaderwahi rap song ‘One the Road’. Manhas was surprised by the support and reaction of the public. “At the time of recording my first song, I never thought people would like or listen to my song because it is such a large number, ” Manhas told Firstpost.

In his first rap, Vicky focused on his lifestyle, his personal life, and his culture.

At that time, he didn’t have any platform to share his song with people at large. The only source he had was WhatsApp. He shared his first song with his friends and relatives through WhatsApp in his native town and within no time he started receiving appreciation calls from his relatives, friends, and even the people unknown to him.

“Speaking honestly, I was astonished by the reaction of the public, getting such an overwhelming response on a song that was mostly focused on my personal life was surprising,” Said Manhas

While talking with the Firstpost Manhas said, “I never received any coaching or joined any Academy. I am a self-taught artist, who has trained himself in audio editing and sound recording through YouTube tutorials”.

Circumstantial turned Rapper.

Before taking singing as a profession, there was a huge tragedy behind Manhas’s journey “Initially, I was not serious about my profession until I met a tragedy, which is still hunting me inside”.

“Even though I was passionate about singing since my childhood, it was my brother’s death, which forced me to take this field seriously. In 2014, when I was in sixth class, my brother died in a road accident. When we checked his phone after his death, It only had the songs he was listening to. The incident affected my mind hugely and I pledged myself to fulfill my brother’s dream of becoming a rapper,” said Manhas.

Initially, Manhas started his career by creating rap audios and after some years he created his Youtube channel, where he starts uploading his songs and sharing them on social media. Currently, Manhas has around 350k+ views, while his videos on other channels have lacs of views. He has thousands of followers on his Facebook page as well. Now Manhas’s songs are not only restricted to YouTube, Amazon, and various other streaming platforms but they are being sung at the local wedding and birthday parties as well.

To date, Manhas has released almost forty songs in different languages, while his main focus has remained on Bhaderwahi, his mother tongue of Manhas. His super hit songs in Bhaderwahi language are “On The Road ” or “Pahadi Jawala” or “Bhaderwahi Mashup.”

Manhas is the only child of his parents. A native of Thathri village in Doda district, Manhas managed his time between a shop and making music at his small makeshift studio in his bedroom. His brother’s death forced him to leave his post-graduation course in Management midway to take care of his family. But in these circumstances, he didn’t let his passion die. Manhas, a father of an 11-month-old daughter, Manhas learned to compose and edit songs through YouTube tutorials.

“I’m from a place where there isn’t a music school where I can learn to compose beats or edit videos. I simply watched YouTube tutorials and at the beginning, it was hard to practice but after some time, I bought some instruments so that I could at least try them out properly. It would have cost me at least five lakhs of rupees to learn this from a school outside of my region,” said Manhas.

Few links of his musical.

Currently, he has around 60 videos on his YouTube channel which includes mostly Bhaderwahi rap songs, including Pahadi and Hindi rap songs Manhas has more than five thousand subscribers on YouTube and about four thousand followers on Facebook.

Focusing on local things.

Manhas raps mostly about local lifestyle and culture in his songs. The Bhaderwahi language, oddly enough, more than any other aspect of Jammu and Kashmir, bears a striking resemblance to the culture of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

In the majority of cases, Himachali music can be heard playing on any truck or minibus, according to Manhas. That led Manhas to establish connections with several Pahadi artists in Himachal Pradesh. His next song is a collaboration with Rajesh Tyagi, a vocalist from Sirmur in Himachal Pradesh. The song aims to re-establish a link between Bhaderwahi and Himachali culture.

In September 2020, the parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill—which made Hindi, Kashmiri, and Dogri the official languages of the Union Territory. People of Chenab valley felt disheartened as none of the Chenab languages was made an official language, which is a hub of several languages in Jammu and Kashmir. Manhas through his music is also trying to get the attention of the government toward this fading language.

Financial Crunch

Although Manhas is being rated highly, only a few know what he is going through. He is investing his hard-earned money, time, and energy into his profession and he is yet to earn any money from his work but he hopes time is not far away when he will start making money out of his talent.

But for Manhas, the road ahead is full of challenges. “I belong to a region, where there aren’t many prospects for me to develop my talent here,” he said. This fact motivated Manhas to decide to use social media and video-sharing websites to make his music accessible to a wider audience.

He emphasized, “I want my region to get attention from government officials and want tourists to have a taste of our culture and area so they come here too,” he added.

Mubashir Naik is an independent journalist based in Jammu & Kashmir. He tweets at @sule_khaak

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