What makes a bunch of teenagers head to Sion Fort and empty railway platforms at midnight to practise breakdancing? Love for the form, you’d naturally assume. And what makes a bunch of teenagers from lower income backgrounds do the same at midnight?

Aakriti Kohli, a 23 year-old student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) assumed it had everything to do with angst, resistance and rebellion. As part of her media and culture studies project, Kohli, along with four group members, was filming a documentary on teenagers who breakdance in Mumbai. Kohli rolled the camera during the very first shoot and asked her protagonist, 21 year-old Mohammad Gani, which of the above mentioned emotions made him an underground breakdancer. Gani blinked at the choices he had to pick from. “None of those. I am not sad. My parents don’t beat me. And I have a steady job, too.” That’s when Kohli and her group had to sit down and reconsider their ideas.