'Beat boxing' his way to fame and success

Meet Hariharan, popularly known as Harry d Cruz, who is the first Kazoo beat boxer in India. This 22-year-old makes world record for mimicking Indian instruments through his voice.

Kazoo is an American musical instrument which creates a 'buzzing' sound in the music. He was the first from India to mix both the sounds. His initiative was very well received by the music industry.

Speaking to The Young Hans Harry says "When I was doing my 12th grade, we had a cultural fest in the college. During that time one of my seniors came up and showed beatboxing. I was very curious and asked him more about it as I was unaware of this art form. I was very curious and browsed about it when I came back home. My friends and I started making random noises through our voice, people around us use to get annoyed."

He is pursuing MBA at St George's College of Management and Science, Bengaluru. Passion led him to learn beatboxing with the help of the internet. It was his inquisitiveness towards beatboxing that he learnt and mastered how to play saxophone with nothing but his mouth.

"I am from an orthodox family and they don't support all these things. I still remember asking my parents to send me to cricket coaching classes during my school days but they didn't support. They always asked me to concentrate on studies. I learnt beatboxing without their knowledge, I use to bunk classes to practice it. Now, I have completed my Bachelor's degree and my performance is receiving good response my parents are supporting me with this." says Harry

The young artist served as the Cultural Secretary at Indian Academy Degree College, Bengaluru for the year 2017-18. He also became an active beatboxing coach and trained aspiring musicians under him.

"It was a surreal experience to face the crowds heat for the first time at the college fest." From this point on there was no stopping him. "I was on my journey to become the first kazoo beatboxer from India." he adds

Inter College feasts gave a platform to Harry D Cruz to polish his art and be recognised for it. They opened doors which would lead Harry to corporate events, live shows, concerts. He didn't stop at this. He graduated from Indian Academy Degree College and took various workshops to teach beatboxing, for others who were interested to learn from him, his first workshop took place at NIT Trichy national level fest.

Achievements

Performances on over 100 stages, Harry has won many awards and recognition. Harry has judged the biggest fest in Bangalore the IKYA 2018 Fiesta at Nagarjuna Institute of Technology where actor Allu Arjun was the chief guest. Also, he performed for Innovative Wine Festival at Innovative Film City on 25 December 2018 to exhibit his amazing talent of beatboxing. Being the finalist of Mirchi Decode your Talent 2018, he is recognised as the best beatboxer in Indian Academy and has been named among the students as "beat." Harry is also titled as Mr TARANGINI 2018 by Maharani Lakshmi Ammani college for women. He is awarded the Best performer 2k16 by HAL Malayalee association. In the year 2017 Harry became the champion of Kerala Beatbox Championship.