Party goers speak up on female DJs and their work

This week Djanemag India went out to meet a few students and regular party goers in Pune to try and understand their views about females in the DJ circuit and about the concept of Djanemag.

Arshad Mulani (28) a regular party goer remarks that it doesn’t really matter what the gender of the DJ is; if the music is good they’ve fulfilled their purpose. When asked whether they feel there is a discrimination based on gender in place here, he says “Where does this issue not exist?” He further said that there are a lot of female acts which are much better than their male counterparts but for some reason at the end of the day we see more male than female DJs. Next, we asked him if he would rather go to a party with a male or female DJ. He replied, “Until unless it’s worth what I pay, I don’t mind either.” He further adds that it is also a proud moment to see a female DJ behind the deck and successfully pursuing her dreams since it is one more step towards breaking stereotypes and making the society more broad minded. “Gender equity will be ensured rather than equality!”

Sankalpo Mukherjee (20) is a student at a premier institution in the city. He highlighted the fact that a lot of female DJs are not very open and interactive with audiences. He continues that this may be mainly because of the lack of opportunities to be on stage; with every performance their body language will automatically change and be more open to audiences. When asked about whether he feels discrimination between male and female DJs he says it’s not the industry that is completely to blame for this issue. Even party goers go to a party with female DJs only for to check them out and a lot of clubs purposely get female acts to attract glamour. The mindset of party goers is hence set and it will take time to change this. He says that in this case a concept like that of Djanemag is an amazing way to break pre-conceived notions and get the real female talent out there rather than just the glamourous one.

Aditi Kakkar (20) is another student from Bareilly who is in town for her graduate studies. When we asked her whether she feels there is some kind of discrimination between male and female DJs she replied, “Yeah definitely. I don’t know why most clubs choose male over female DJs. Maybe they think the male ones attract more of a female crowd and adds glamour to their party, but what to be honest we would love it even more if there is a female DJ.” Next we asked her if she finds a difference in music of male and female DJs, she said that female DJs definitely play a set with more variety. But she is totally indifferent to a party with a male or female DJ because “it depends on their talent and not their gender.”  She had views similar to Sankalpo about the concept of Djanemag considering that discrimination exists and a lot of female talent is unnoticed which will probably come out through this initiative.

Although we’ve mentioned 3 people but there are many more who keep talking to us and send messages that make us believe that our work is really fruitful. Indeed female DJs need to be promoted further and they need more platforms to showcase their talent. We know that with efforts of so may people in the industry, this is not a distant dream.