In the Disney+ movie World’s Best we see Utkarsh Ambudkar return to his rap roots, as he plays Manny Magnus’ dad who was an emcee before he passed away. In the film, Magnus’ character Prem discovers that his dad was a rapper, and through that finds a passion for the genre. So, to prepare for the many musical numbers on the 2023 movie schedule entry, the two actors did a little bootcamp to get ready to rap in the film, and they told CinemaBlend about the process.
In the film, Magnus’ Prem is a math prodigy who discovers his love for rap when his late father appears in his bedroom as a sort of ghost (which is ironic considering Ambudkar plays one of the only humans in the Ghosts cast). While speaking with CinemaBlend, the young actor explained that learning this musical skill was a bit harder than learning the dialogue, and they had to work at it. However, according to his co-star and on-screen father, he picked the skill up quickly.
He's selling himself short. I mean, Manny came in not being a rapper, very talented musician, amazing singer and instrumentalist, but the boy had not rapped. We basically put him through a boot camp and overnight, he turned into this very dexterous emcee so all kudos to him. He’s kind of selling themselves short right now.
That’s a high compliment coming from someone like Ambudkar, who is an accomplished freestyle rapper. While you might recognize him from his role as Donald in Pitch Perfect (AKA the Trebelmakers beatboxer/rapper) he was also in the wildly successful freestyle rap group Freestyle Love Supreme, and some of his pals from the Broadway crew showed up in World’s Best. Overall, I think it’s safe to say that Magnus’ teacher is one of the "world’s best."
Manny Magnus went on to say that they did a boot camp that involved a Zoom with Ambudkar, and the Ghosts star added to the explanation, going a bit more in-depth about how they prepared for the movie:
Yeah, we had some rehearsals and just being honest with each other and being supportive and sort of loving as collaborators and being like, ‘hey, it could be bettter.’ Like, ‘That was good, do you think you can do better?’ And both of us sort of holding each other accountable and making it better and getting our blend right it was it was really cool. Manny is a very willing participant you know, he wants to do great and that's what makes him special.
You can tell in this quote, and in general how impressed Ambudkar was with the young actor. Before the film came out he took to Instagram to write about how he was constantly watching Magnus “in awe” as he performed. While the young actor had to learn a thing or two about rapping, he picked up on it quickly and he’s fantastic in World’s Best.
Clearly, this bootcamp paid off, because Utkarsh Ambudkar and Manny Magnus are fantastic together in World’s Best. To see them rapping together, you can check out this film as well as Disney+'s best original movies with a Disney+ subscription.
