The Untold Story of India’s First Hip-Hop Movement
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by Rahul
Most people that follow Indian Hip Hop (or may we say Indian rap) think that rap was the first element of hip hop that blew up in India.
And although that statement is correct in a way, no one can erase the story of breaking in India — the first hip hop element that truly started popping off in several places across the country, and the one that introduced many people to rap in the first place.
Before we were having sold-out rap shows in India, before the big labels and companies started looking at the rap industry, breaking had already made its mark. Companies like Red Bull were hosting major events as early as 2015.
Yes, that’s the same year Mere Gully Mein released — but that very year, breaking had its own milestone moment: Red Bull BC One Cypher India, one of the first major events in Indian hip hop history.
That tells you something about the scale at which breaking was already popular in India.
Even shows like Boogie Woogie, hosted by Jaaved Jaaferi, had showcased this art form years earlier, though most of us watching it back then didn’t even realize it was part of hip hop culture.
Before we dive into the early beginnings of this movement, let’s first talk about what exactly is Breaking and what is Red Bull BC One is — to understand just how big breaking had already become by 2015.
What Is Red Bull BC One?
For anyone unfamiliar, Red Bull BC One is one of the world’s most prestigious 1-on-1 breaking competitions — often called the World Cup of Breaking. Since 2004, it has set the global benchmark for b-boys and b-girls.
Winning a national title doesn’t just earn respect, it cements your name in hip hop history.
By the time the Indian edition launched in 2015, the local breaking scene had already built a solid foundation of crews, cyphers, and underground battles across the country.
What Exactly Is Breaking?
Breaking (often called breakdancing in pop culture) is one of the five core elements of hip hop, alongside DJing, MCing, graffiti, and knowledge.
It began in the Bronx, New York, during the early 1970s when African-American and Puerto Rican youth transformed street parties into expressive dance battles.
Dancers (b-boys and b-girls) developed a style blending footwork, spins, freezes, and power moves. But beyond technique, breaking was about identity, resistance, and self-expression: a response to struggle and a celebration of community.
Pioneers like DJ Kool Herc, Rock Steady Crew, and Crazy Legs helped shape it into a global phenomenon. By the 1980s, breaking had reached television screens and movie sets, inspiring youth worldwide, including India.
The Origins: How It All Started
It all began in 2001, when two passionate hip hop heads — Hera and Simon — met by chance in a café in Dehradun. That meeting would spark a movement that spread across India, connecting crews, teaching kids, and shaping the country’s earliest hip hop communities.
If Bohemia is considered the godfather of Desi rap, B-Boy Hera holds that same position for breaking.
Originally from Queens, New York, Hera began breaking in 1998 and moved to India in the early 2000s. He didn’t just dance: he taught, organized, and built spaces for others to grow.
Through Tiny Drops, a community center in Mumbai and Delhi, Hera helped bring hip hop education to marginalized youth: teaching breaking, graffiti, emceeing, and DJing as a way of life, not just an art form.
One of the strongest offshoots of that work was the legendary crew SlumGods, co-founded with B-Boy Akku (Akash Dhangar).
I actually met Akku during my last visit to India. Listening to his stories — some inspiring, some difficult — you realize how deep this culture runs. Today, Akku continues that mission through his free hip hop school Hip Hop Paathshala, a space for underprivileged kids in Dharavi.
He also played a key role in setting up The Dharavi Dream Project, another after-school hip hop program that continues to nurture young artists and dancers in one of India’s most vibrant communities.
But the reality is breaking was not just happening in Delhi or Mumbai, by the mid 2000’s there were waves of it happening in different part of the country.
The Early Wave of Indian Breaking
For instance, people like Bhargav (B-Boy Bravo) were already breaking in Chennai around 2007, and he went on to co-found the crew Break Guruz in 2008–09. His co-founder Jayanta (B-Boy Hotshot) was based in Kolkata, showing how this movement was spreading across cities even back then.
Other early crews like Roc Fresh, Southside Boyz, and Beast Mode Crew were also shaping the culture during those formative years.
Much like how Orkut played a role in connecting India’s early rap community, it did the same for breaking.
The internet became the meeting ground where these dancers discovered each other, shared clips, exchanged knowledge, and eventually formed crews that would go on to define the foundation of Indian breaking.
Where Breaking in India Stands Today
If we talk about breaking today, it’s come a long way from those small community jams and Orkut forums.
What started as a raw, underground movement has now grown into one of the most respected and disciplined art forms in India’s hip hop scene.
At the center of that story stands B-Boy Flying Machine (also known as Arif Chaudhary) a six-time Red Bull BC One India Champion (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2024, 2025) and the first Indian breaker to make it to the Top 16 at the Red Bull BC One World Final.
From his early days watching breaking videos on YouTube to representing India on the world stage, Arif has become a symbol of consistency, discipline, and creativity, the kind of artist who built his legacy not on trends, but on timeless mastery.
Flying Machine comes from the same crew as B-Boy Wildchild: both members of Beast Mode Crew, one of India’s most elite breaking collectives.
Together, they’ve carried the Indian breaking scene for over a decade, mentoring younger dancers and proving that India can hold its own in the global circuit.
Wildchild’s story, though, is one of grit and belief.
Born and raised in Mumbai, Eshwar Kanhaiya Tiwari, known as Wildchild, started breaking at just 14 — sneaking out of his home to train because his strict family didn’t see dance as a real career.
The only person who supported him was his mother, who saw her own unrealized dream in him and pushed him to keep going. Fueled by that support, Wildchild went on a winning streak, taking home more than a dozen titles between 2014 and 2017.
In 2021, he finally won Red Bull BC One India Cypher, earning his shot to compete internationally.
By 2022, he became only the second breaker from India to qualify for the Red Bull BC One World Final, performing on one of the biggest stages in New York City, a moment that not only validated his hard work, but also his mother’s faith.
Today, both Flying Machine and Wildchild continue to represent India globally while building the next generation at home: hosting workshops, mentoring kids, and showing that breaking can be a lifelong path.
The culture they helped shape has spread far beyond Delhi and Mumbai — now thriving in places like Chennai, Shillong, Guwahati, Kochi, Chandigarh and Pune, among many others.
Across these cities, new breakers can be found training in parks, dance studios, and underground cyphers every week, keeping the spirit of hip hop alive in every corner of the country.
And with breaking making its Olympic debut at Paris 2024, the global spotlight on this movement has never been brighter.
But this story barely scratches the surface. There are countless b-boys and b-girls across India who’ve been pouring their heart and soul into this art form: training, battling, and building the culture from the ground up.
So explore the scene, dig deeper, and find your favourites, because every city has its own heroes.
Because breaking was never just about moves: it’s about movement, community, and believing in something before anyone else does.
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