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.”
In synch: the numbers
They have sung mash-ups of Viva La Vida/Jashn-e-Bahara (originals by Coldplay and Javed Ali), Heartless/Kabhi Kabhi Aditi (originals by Kanye West and Rashid Ali) and even covered a verse of Outlandish's Aicha in Arabic.
But their 2014 composition, Evolution Of Bollywood Music, wins hands down in terms of popularity. At last count, it had more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.
Ravi says the inspiration for the composition came from the American a cappella group Pentatonix's music video, Evolution Of Music, which recreated a mash-up of the best of western music across decades, in an a cappella style.
“We were wowed by their video and thought why not do an evolution of Bollywood music in the same way?” Ravi says. No other a cappella group had explored the idea before Penn Masala. “Everyone was excited to see how we fit together a medley of Bollywood music, starting from the 1940s to the present.”
A joint venture
It may come as a surprise, but only a few of the members have a background in classical music.
“The rest are all shower singers,” says Ravi, who is a trained singer. “But we learn from each other.”
Every autumn, auditions are held for new members and, as soon as they join, the older members get down to teaching and training.
“What really works is practise. That’s the best way to get people to make music together the way we do,” says Ravi. Ideas for covers and new music also come from within the group. Each member brings to the table his own taste in music. The group also stays up to date with the latest songs in Bollywood and western music. “Whenever we find something new and exciting, we play around with it and try different combinations. If everyone in the group approves, we work on the composition,” says Ravi.
Celluloid success
In Pitch Perfect 2, Penn Masala was the only real-life collegiate a cappella group to be featured, to their delight.
"We got an email from Pitch Perfect 2 organisers one day saying that they wanted to include us in the film. We were floored."
Penn Masala immediately began working on a Hindi cover of Anyway You Want It by Journey, and filmed for the movie in Louisiana for a week in June last year. "It was a surreal experience," Ravi says. "We got to meet two big a cappella groups, Pentatonix and Filharmonic, and that gave us a whole new perspective on our music," he adds.
• Penn Masala’s studio albums and music videos are available on www.pennmasala.com, iTunes, Spotify and SoundCloud
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