Meet The Spectacular Female DJs Of Odisha!

Meet The Spectacular Female DJs Of Odisha!

The Indian music scene, over the past decade, is witnessing a predominant EDM and mixed music culture sweeping over the taste of music listeners. Thus, ruling the roost, is a breed of unique music blenders and mixers called Disc Jockeys or DJs, who can overhaul one genre of music entirely to another, and set the crowd grooving to their tunes. As popular as it has become a career option among the youth, liberated from the idea of being an abstract profession, it is still a male-dominated industry and women working as DJs are fewer in number, fame, and opportunity. 

Nevertheless, there have been women who have broken the barriers, handling their consoles like a boss and are a favourite among the crowd. As Odisha too takes to the culture of parties and music concerts in a big way, MCL talks to the only two popular female DJs from Odisha who tell us how their journey has been in this male bastion.

DJ Maneesha: 

Attending parties in Kolkata, she developed an interest in becoming a DJ but it was only after her marriage to DJ Tushar, a renowned DJ in Bhubaneswar, nine years back that she picked up the professional tricks to become one herself. And, there has been no looking back for DJ Maneesha since then.

Maneesha keeps busy throughout the year with regular shows. According to her, cocktail parties, wedding sangeets and farm house parties are where DJs are most in demand in Odisha. “Twice a month, I am offered to play ata farm house party. That apart, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, cocktail parties are also lined up,” informs Maneesha.

Being someone who believes that song selection is the most important thing to be a good DJ, Maneesha feels it is very important to keep in mind, the crowd and their expectations while playing the songs. “In farm house parties, people mostly prefer loud music and dancing numbers. But the song selection has to bedifferent for a wedding,” she explains.

Sharing about the transformation she has seen in these nine years of her professional career as a DJ, Maneesha says, “When I started, the night life scenario in Bhubaneswar was quite different. Weekends used to be happening. But, now it has become a dull affair as night clubbing is on the decline in the city. If Bhubaneswar develops a good night life eventually, I won’t have to go to other cities in search of shows. Rather I would be glad performing in my own state.”

As far as her success is concerned, she considers herself lucky for getting a supportive family who always encourages her. “So far, the journey has been good and I am hoping for the best for future.”

Maneesha feels that to be a good DJ, one needs to get proper training from an institution. She wants to advice all aspiring DJs to work on consoles so that the crowd can enjoy their creativity.

DJ Rix

21-year-old Bijaya Bihari aka DJ Rix has been into deejaying since the last three years. She started her journey learning the art from DJ Jack at Rain Club, Cuttack and thereafter played along side DJ Shivam at Pal Heights, Bhubaneswar.

She has been doing regular shows across the state in cities like Puri, Bhadrak, Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar. Bijaya, in fact, recently got a chance to perform at Vizag as well. “I love to see people dancing on my tracks and it was a great experience performing outside the state.”

Though a successful DJ today, her journey hasn’t been without struggles. “There were incidences when people used to criticise me for my choice of songs as a DJ. If doubting my professional skills wasn’t enough, I was even accused of compromising with clients for getting shows. Being a female DJ is tough,” she explains.

Despite all these challenges, Bijaya has been doing great in her career and feels lucky to have a supportive family. However, she does feel that becoming a professional DJ in Odisha is quite difficult as there is not much scope here. “If someone desires to make a career in this field, they have to consider going outside the state, just the way I am aspiring to at this moment,” she sums up.