Born Nischit Mishra, raised in Odisha, made in Hyderabad. Half data science finance analyst, half funk-punk evangelist. Full-time portal-hopping vibe pilot. This is not your average “from small town to city stages” arc. This is how a finance analyst who used to busk with a guitar at open mics mutated into a cross-genre producer, rapper, designer, DJ, and the sci-fi surrealist Hyderabad didn’t know it needed.

There’s a party happening on an alien planet. A DJ, shirt half-buttoned, synth in one hand, a slice of pizza in the other, drops a beat that turns the planet's orbit into bass reverb. The DJ is everywhere at once: inside a spaceship rave, on a rooftop terrace in Bandra, at a dive bar in Secunderabad, floating above his own vinyl pressing plant on Mars. This isn’t fiction. This is the artwork (designed by artist Deepshika Kale) on the album Planet Punk 2309, and the DJ is Mr. Beatlust.

You want to understand Mr. Beatlust? Imagine 11 sundowner shows in 3 months. He curates them like Tarot cards. Every DJ is a pull from the deck, every beat is fate unexpected. “B&F stands for Beatlust and Friends,” he tells us, “but it’s more than a banner. It’s momentum.” It started off with hip-hop regulars rapping to live beats with the likes of DJ Vibecheck, Jaedyn, and others. The sundowners are also part of B&F with a lineup choreographed like a rave opera: groovy openers, a mid-set meltdown, and a final DJ blowing the roof off the sky. “Whoever opens has to maintain the vibe of a sundowner,” he says. “And then you ramp it up till the crowd forgets what they are doing tomorrow.”

How Planet Punk Was Born:

Before the basslines, there was Ubasiyaan: an indie track that crawled out of Mr. Beatlust’s gut and onto Spotify, where it’s still one of his most streamed songs. It’s gentle, earnest and laidback. The kind of song that plays at the end of a heartbreak movie.

Then came the pivot to deejaying at a Red Bull skateboarding event. He has been deejaying for over a decade since his college days back at NIT Rourkela, in Odisha. However, the Red Bull event in Hyderabad was his first real DJ set. Somewhere in there came the realization that music doesn’t have to wait for permission.

“I always wanted someone to produce and compose my songs,” he says. “But couldn’t find a good producer in Hyderabad. So I became one,” he laughs.

“There are multiple genres,” he says. “But if you listen to the album from start to end, there’s a pattern.” Each track is a room in a galactic rave. The number 23 in Planet Punk 2309 stands for his birthdate while 09 is included because it is a complete number in the spiritual world. “This album,” he says, “is a complete version of me.”

He couldn't find the sound he needed. So he built it from scratch. He taught himself how to produce, mix and master audio tracks. His debut album Planet Punk 2309 was out earlier this year. It's a psychotropic joyride. Think Daft Punk meets Flume inside a Rick and Morty fever dream. “It's a bell curve of sound. It starts slow, gets melodic and ends in pure sonic combustion,” says Mr. Beatlust.

From NIT to Neural Nets to Nightclubs:

Mr. Beatlust is a data science finance analyst by day and musician by night. Some people treat music like math: notes and scales and technical perfection. Not Mr. Beatlust. He treats music like graffiti: layered, loud, illegible until it hits you in the gut. He’s also a designer, coder and cartoonist. Which is why his music looks as wild as it sounds. This multidisciplinary approach enriches his musical creations. “I enjoy this process so much that I design the visuals for my projects,” he says.

You think he’s just Hyderabad’s groovy DJ? Think again. His collab with Pune artist Siddhant Pillai and rapper Chri$p Bad Trip went viral. Suddenly, he was Hyderabad’s go-to hip-hop producer. But he doesn’t want the label. “I can do hip-hop. But I’m not just that. I want the freedom to build whatever soundscape I want.” Apart from Hyderabad, he has worked with artists from Mumbai, Delhi, Pune like Sounds of Joy and Nae Poppy.

Hyderabad as Home Base and Muse:

Ask him about Hyderabad and his voice gets warmer. Hyderabad's eclectic music landscape played a pivotal role in shaping Mr. Beatlust's artistry. “This city gave me open mics. And open mics gave me my confidence,” he says. He credits IPs like Beats n Banter, GHMC, IMP, All School, and Get Salty for allowing “outsiders like me” to find their footing.

“It’s not just about stage time,” he says. “It’s about feeling like someone wants to hear what you have to say. Unless artists have the opportunity to showcase their work, they can't grow,” he says.

He finds local talents like rapper Almo, BOHB, LAVI, and Priyanka Nath continuously pushing the city's music boundaries and keeping the scene exciting.

Until then, there’s Rhythm Bureau. A new initiative he’s launching on June 8, 2025, with Vibecheck and vocalist Nupur. He says, “We’re building a whole new soundscape with Rhythm Bureau. It is the umbrella under which our individual initiatives fall. This is for the true music lovers, who crave something fresh and unexpected.

His next album is already in the works. Like its predecessor, it’ll have a cryptic title; a mix of numbers and imagination. Three songs are done. The rest are whispers in his mind. “I might work with past collaborators and find new ones. I want to surprise myself.”

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