MUMBAI: Only Much Louder (OML) which already owns BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender, a diverse comedy-centric festival - Stage42, and the flagship creative entrepreneurial gathering - The Coalition recently joined Breezer to build the ultimate platform for hip-hop, Breezer Vivid Shuffle, India's biggest hip-hop dance festival. The festival was announced by Bollywood actor and the festival’s brand ambassador, Varun Dhawan.

Hip-hop as a culture has been gaining popularity over the last few years in India. With several breakout artistes of this once-underground genre becoming icons and even headlining music festivals, and with an appeal from metros and small towns alike, it's clear the genre and all that it stands for is firmly entrenched and here to stay.

Breezer Vivid Shuffle builds on Breezer's commitment to support popular music culture, and will be the lead platform to take forward its ‘Live Life in Colour’ brand ethos to the millennials in a pan-India competition with five regional rounds and one grand finale where individuals and crews will get the chance to battle it out across a variety of styles.

Conceptualized and executed by Only Much Louder, the company behind properties such as BACARDI NH7 Weekender and The Dewarists; Breezer Vivid Shuffle hopes to bring dance enthusiasts across the country under one umbrella. There are five regional rounds – in Kolkata (7 October), Guwahati (8 October), Bengaluru (14 October), Delhi (15 October) and Mumbai (29 October). The Grand Finale of the event will happen in Mumbai on11 November as winning individuals and crews from regional rounds battle it out against each other to be proclaimed India’s best.

Apart from being the first-ever event of this scale, Breezer Vivid Shuffle also offers India's largest cash prize pool for a hip-hop dance festival. There will be international judges specialising in each category as well, for the finale, the names will be revealed in coming weeks on the festival’s social media handles.

With the influence of a leading Bollywood celebrity, Breezer Vivid Shuffle aims to reach out to a larger base of audiences beyond the metro cities. "Varun Dhawan (actor) is the perfect choice as an influencer to take forward the ‘Live Life in Colour’ philosophy of Breezer to the millennial. He has established himself as one of the most promising actors in the industry, won multiple awards and is a fun-loving personality embodying the values of Breezer," said Bacardi India Pvt Ltd head of marketing Anshuman Goenka.

The Breezer Vivid music video, to be released shortly, will feature Varun Dhawan as the lead and will be amplified across digital, television, cinema and radio. It also features Divine and Siri, with music by electronic artist Sid Vashi.

The competition consists of four categories in which people can participate based on the dance style: individual categories of one-on-one Battle for Popping and B-Boying and group (four or more) categories of Crew Battles and Battle Showcase featuring all styles. The festival would be amplified by hosting pre-events across Breezer’s major markets in India, programmed with established hip-hop artists; digital amplification and webisodes to reach out to a larger base of consumers with Varun as the face.

"If there's one musical trend we've seen over the last few years, it's the rise of hip-hop culture. What's amazing to see is that this isn't just music for music's sake. There are political messages, stories of growing up and much more, in languages as diverse as Marathi and Malayalam," says Only Much Louder CEO Vijay Nair.

He further added, "The hip-hop dance culture exists all across the country and we've been seeing a lot of interest in small towns, not just the metros. With Breezer Vivid Shuffle, we hope to tap this interest and bring these artists to light."

Watch Varun Dhawan’s announcement:

Watch the official music video featuring Varun Dhawan, Divine and Siri here: