Penn Masala is a Hindi a cappella group that featured in the recent musical comedy Pitch Perfect 2 and, even more astonishingly, it was formed by students at the University of Pennsylvania in 1996.
The all-boy troupe still features UPenn students, with fresh talent replacing outgoing graduates every year. Their fame is widespread, and includes performances at the White House in 2009 and for the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011.
The current line-up boasts 12 singers, mostly Indian-Americans known for their rock-star vocals, beat-boxing capabilities and ability to blend Bollywood and western tunes.
Preserving Indian heritage
Penn Masala belongs to the breed of Indian-Americans who grew up on a diet of Hindi music at home and a steady stream of pop music outside.
“Our founders thought that a really cool way to pursue a cappella would be to mix both kinds of music not only for the fun factor, but also to show our heritage as Indian-Americans,” says Hariharan Ravi, a Penn Masala member and junior at UPenn.
The mid-1990s was also the period when Hindi film music was gaining recognition in the United States due to a surge of Bollywood releases in the West. Many other collegiate South Asian a cappella groups followed the footsteps of Penn Masala to make their own mark. Stanford University’s Raagapella and Princeton’s Tarana are two of the best known. “We try to do four to five shows in a term,” says Ravi, 19, who has performed in several cities in the US in the two years that he has been with the group. “The American audience enjoys our music as much as Indians do.”
Original article by Priti Salian
Continue reading at The National:
Catching up with Hariharan Ravi from the Bollywood a cappella group Penn Masala
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