Sunny Kaushal reveals how missed morning coffee and burnt tongue led to his music debut

(Extreme right) Sunny Kaushal during the song’s shoot

A missed morning coffee and a burnt tongue will leave most of us with an awful mood. But for Sunny Kaushal, they led to his music debut. The actor, last seen in Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba (2024), has turned rapper with his first single, Mid air freeverse. He wrote it mid-air - on a flight from Delhi to Mumbai. "I was running late to the airport and missed my coffee. As soon as I got on the plane, I requested the flight attendant for a cup of coffee, and ended up burning my tongue. That's how the first line of the song originated," he grins.

Armed with a pen and paper, Kaushal scribbled away on the two-hour-plus flight. The result - an upbeat Punjabi rap number, filled with rhythm and rhyme.

Vicky Kaushal

Of course, the beginnings of his shift to music happened earlier. It began more as a need to express himself than to pursue a career outside of acting. Kaushal recalls, "I started writing during the pandemic. It was a creative outlet, as shoots were not happening for a month, two months, three months, and so on. So, it originated from my need to express myself creatively." Realising that writing came to him naturally, the actor began to learn the craft. "I started understanding the techniques and different ways you can weave words together or time your rap delivery. I started watching YouTube videos on how to make your rhymes better."

The new rapper's music inspirations range from Eminem to Bohemia and Karan Aujla. "My introduction to rap was Eminem. Lose yourself was my first hip-hop song. Then Bohemia blew my mind by bringing rap in Punjabi."

As he sends his first track out into the world, Kaushal is clear about one thing - acting remains his first love. "I make music when I get time. Poetry, for me, is a way of journalling my emotions," he says.