Raftaar

Biography

Dilin Nair (born 16 November 1988), better known by his stage name Raftaar, is an Indian rapper, lyricist, music producer, composer, dancer and TV personality associated with Hindi, Punjabi and Haryanvi music.

Early and personal life

Kalathilkuzhiyil Devadasan Dilin Nair was born on 16 November 1988 to a Delhi-based Malayali couple in Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram), Kerala. Raftaar married Komal Vohra, the sister of Indian television actors Karan Vohra and Kunal Vohra, in December 2016. They filed for a divorce in 2020 and have been living separately. The legal proceedings were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were finalised on 6 October 2022.
On 31 January 2025, Raftaar married fashion stylist, actress, and model Manraj Jawanda in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in traditional Malayali and Sikh wedding ceremonies.

2008-2012: Early career, Mafia Mundeer and Dance India Dance

Raftaar initially began his music career by making tracks with his childhood friends and fellow rappers Ikka and Lil Golu. After a while of making tracks and uploading them online, Yo Yo Honey Singh heard a track on Orkut which was uploaded by the trio, then known as The Black Wall Street Desis. Singh reached out to the three youngsters and invited them to his studio in Okhla, Delhi. According to Ikka on his track "Interview", Singh worked with the three youngsters while also giving them stage names; "Young Amli" for Ikka, "Raftaar" for Dilin who went by the name OniMaxxx/Max and "Lil Golu" for Sahil who had the nickname Golu. Some of his collaborations with Singh include "Kamli Kamli" featuring Rimz J and "Sharabia". Raftaar also started his career as a dancer, as Max and participated in a reality TV show Dance India Dance in 2011, in DID Doubles along with a friend named Manik.
In the meantime, Raftaar split from Mafia Mundeer due to credit-related problems, most notably involving the dispute related to the track "Dope Shope", from Singh's album, International Villager. He appeared in the music video for only a few seconds, alleging that his screen time was also cut.

2012-2017: The Titans, Swag Mera Desi and mainstream break-out

After the split, he then formed a group, The Titans, with Badshah and Sachit Takkar (Sachh).
They produced many songs together in the Punjabi music industry and Bollywood together, most notably for Deep Money's album Born Star, on tracks like "Bottle", "Majnu" and "Sugar".
Raftaar became widely known and recognised after releasing his song "Swag Mera Desi" in 2013 with Manj Musik. The line "Ab yeh karke dikhao" (transl. Now try to do this) from the song was interpreted as a subliminal directed towards Yo Yo Honey Singh, who used the phrase in his song "Party With The Bhoothnath" which led to a dispute between the two rappers in media. "Swag Mera Desi" won Best Urban Song at the Brit Asia TV Music Awards in 2014. Further, Raftaar and Singh were also embroiled in a credit dispute, stemming from their collaboration on the soundtrack of the film Fugly, when Raftaar alleged that he wasn't credited as a songwriter on three tracks from the album.
Raftaar collaborated with Manj Musik again, for the posse cut "Desi Hip Hop", which also featured Badshah, Humble the Poet, Roach Killa, Raxstar, Sarb Smooth and Big Dhillon. The track also featured subliminal disses aimed at Yo Yo Honey Singh. The same year, he skyrocketed to mainstream popularity with the songs, "All Black", with Sukhe and Jaani, and "Toh Dishoom" and "Dhaakad" from the 2016 films Dishoom and Dangal, respectively.

2017-2020: KALAMKAAR, debut album and collaborations

In 2017, Raftaar debuted in the Bengali music industry through the film One which featured singer Vishal Dadlani and Raftaar. In the same year, he founded the record label KALAMKAAR, alongside Ankit Khanna, signing a variety of acts, such as KR$NA, Rashmeet Kaur, Deep Kalsi, Karma, Yunan and Harjas Harjaai. He also produced and rapped a song for the Chaamp soundtrack. He released his debut album, Zero To Infinity, the following year in May. The album spawned the single, "Baby Marvaake Maanegi", accompanied by a music video featuring Nora Fatehi.
In September 2018, Raftaar appeared on a podcast with Raaj Jones, where he questioned if fellow rapper Emiway Bantai was generating enough revenue from hip-hop. The statement was taken out of context and resulted in Emiway dropping "Samajh Mein Aaya Kya", targeting Raftaar and refuting his claims that Emiway wasn’t earning much yet, and further added that he eventually would build an empire of his own. Raftaar responded with his own track, "Sheikh Chilli", where he called out Emiway for taking the statement out of context and dissected his false claims. Emiway responded again with "Giraftaar", which prompted Raftaar to respond with the song "Anime Hentai" (now known as Awein Hai). This paved the way for a wave of commercialisation in the Indian hip-hop genre, as many Indian rappers claimed to have benefited from the publicity from a credit standpoint. It also gave rise to many other publicised beefs taking place.
Meanwhile, Raftaar released the track "Mantoiyat×Mantoiyat2018 · Single · SpokenwordSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)" from the soundtrack of the film Manto, which was acclaimed for its lyrical content, while incorporating conscious hip-hop in Hindi film music. Raftaar collaborated with Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan for the second edition of Breezer Vivid Shuffle in 2019, and in the same year, started judging the reality shows MTV Hustle, Dance India Dance and MTV Roadies.
The next year, he released his second album, Mr. Nair×Mr. Nair13 April 2020 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 16 tracks1Me and My Pen3:202Dilli Waali Baatcheet3:223Main Wahi Hoon2:504Damn3:345Sick2:366Drama3:107Beshaq3:458Feeling You3:239Haan2:5510Move3:0011Bottal Wargi3:3212Naachne Ka Shaunq3:3813Superman3:4814Popular3:2715Down3:2916Proud3:18, through Zee Music Company, featuring his labelmates KR$NA, Rashmeet Kaur, Deep Kalsi, Karma, Yunan, and Harjas Harjaayi among others.

2020-present: Further collaborations and HARD DRIVE Vol.1 & Vol.2

In 2021, he released his collaboration with labelmate Rashmeet Kaur, "Ghana Kasoota", with the music video featuring Surbhi Jyoti. Over the next few years, Raftaar continued to collaborate with various upcoming desi hip-hop artists like Shah Rule, MC Stan, Seedhe Maut, King, Chaar Diwaari, on singles and also, on a collaborative EP with Prabh Deep, titled Praa, in addition to releasing his own projects, most notably the Hard Drive Vol. 1, and its sequel, in 2022 and 2024, respectively.
Raftaar made his acting debut in the JioCinema web-series Bajao in 2023.
He was seen as a guest judge on the show India's Got Latent in 2024 and returned to judge the fourth season of MTV Hustle, after being absent from the previous two seasons. In 2025, he participated in the reality show The Traitors as a contestant, until he was eliminated in the sixth episode.
In 2026, alongside KR$NA, he announced his own reality show focusing on hip-hop, titled Legacy, produced by SVF Entertainment, which started airing on YouTube and further partnered with ZEE5 as well for streaming rights.

EPs and Mixtapes

WTF (Witness The Future) Mixtape: Vol. 1 (2013–14)
BAR'ISH (EP) (2020–21) (unreleased)
Hard Drive Vol.1 (EP) (2022)
Praa (EP) (2023)
Hard Drive Vol. 2 (EP) (2024)