The restaurant reverberates with O Humdum Suniyo Re as a group of four boys and a girl croon the popular A.R. Rahman number from the movie Saathiya. But look again and you might do a double take for while the beats are on the dot, the strumming of the guitar sounds just right and there are no instruments in sight. Voctronica, a group of motley crew of singers — Avinash Tewari, Arjun Nari, Clyde Rodrigues, Warsha Easwar and Raj Verma — is a vocal beatboxing orchestra. The Mumbai-based band was formed by the collective efforts of Sony Music and British Council.

Now, if you haven’t been living under a rock, you must know that beatboxing is all about creating sounds by exerting pressure on different points in the mouth, inside the throat and over the lips by using one’s hands, the tongue or simply with air pressure.

Often called the fifth element of hip hop, beatboxing has hit the right notes among the young ’uns. Beatboxers are everywhere — at college festivals, corporate events, cultural festivals and at restaurants. It helps that beatboxing doesn’t necessarily need a group as individuals too can perform sans instruments.

Calcutta-based Bishaljit Sarkar, 20, says: “A beatboxer makes sounds without instruments in a way to create a new musical language.” The music can even be a combination of lyrics coupled with the creative sounds of different instruments.

Ishaan Nangia, 19, who has been beatboxing since Class IX says: “My father used to create sounds with his mouth by flapping his lips or hitting particular points on his mouth with his tongue. All I did was to replicate him.”

He honed his skills by watching YouTube videos. Nangia, now a first year student at Sri Venkateswara College in Delhi, regularly organises beatbox battles in college while he’s also done one at Hard Rock Café in Gurgaon. “At Hard Rock Café, beatboxers came not just from the NCR but also from Patiala and Hyderabad,” he says.

What’s making beatboxing immensely popular is that it can adapt to all genres of music — hip hop, Bollywood or jazz. Voctronica for instance specialises in different kinds of music. “During a live event we perform songs from our albums Fitzpleasure and the Evolution of A.R. Rahman which features songs by the music composer. We also create a live track during a performance,” says Arjun Nari, a part of the Mumbai-based group.

Aflatunes, an eight-member group, on the other hand, is high on Bollywood and US chartbusters. Says Navarun Roy, band manager and coordinator: “We dig ’80s Bollywood, Rafi-Kishore era, US chart busters like Major Lazer’s Lean On, Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive and classics like Stand By Me and Michael Jackson’s medleys. We even have a medley of ’90s Cartoon Network tunes. Each of our members has vastly different musical tastes and brings different skills to the table.” This Mumbai-based group recently released a cover called Nucleya’s Bass Rani.

However, it isn’t just the exact rendition of a Bollywood number that finds favour amongst judges at beatboxing competitions where beatboxers’ skills are tested. “We judge them on their techniques and originality,” says 20-year-old Shubham Sharma who started Beatbox India, a community which organises beatbox battles throughout the country.

For Vijay Tewari, a participant in the fifth season of India’s Got Talent in 2014, a good ear is also an essential quality of a good beatboxer. “Listening is important especially for newer beatboxers. The sounds being produced and how they are produced are important things to bear in mind while creating music,” says Tiwari who does three-four paid gigs in a month while holding a full-time job with a travel company.

Divyansh Kacholia, 19, who recently won a beatbox battle at Sri Venkateswara College considers establishing a connection with the audience really important. The Delhi College of Arts and Commerce student says: “It is essential to connect with the audience. I pick one element of music and take it forward depending on the audience’s reaction.”

Kacholia’s USP is his inclusion of folk music, especially Ghoomar from Rajasthan. His rendition of the Pink Panther’s signature tune too is impeccable.

While the beatboxing community has grown substantially in the last couple of years — from eight beatboxers in 2008 to about 500 strong now — the road hasn’t been easy for most. Most of them learnt to beatbox by watching YouTube videos of foreign performers. “YouTube has its limitations as you see the performance but not really understand how something was done. So, practising involves a lot of experimentation,” says Nangia.

To emulate any particular sound takes hours and days of practice something which can be learnt easily if a person is being taught. To overcome this problem, Nangia has started a community of beatboxers in Delhi which stays connected and helps each other.

So, for all those who love music, there’s a whole new world to explore — and no, you don’t need to carry your instruments along.