New Delhi, June 20 -- For years, Moko Koza has reigned as the biggest star of Nagaland's nascent rap scene. The Kohima-born multilingual rapper-he makes music in English as well as Nagamese and local dialects-is a household name in the tiny state, thanks to his pioneering fusion of Naga folk and hip-hop. But, like many artists from the nation's periphery, he struggled to make a dent in the Indian mainstream.

Then Aladdin-a song he first released in 2020-was picked to soundtrack a scene in season 2 of Amazon Prime Video's neo-noir crime-thriller Paatal Lok. His streaming numbers suddenly shot up. Fans of the show flooded the song's YouTube comment section, posting endless variations of "came here from Paatal Lok." Now he's in talks with t...