Bidar police imposed a
ban on DJs in
marriage processions following the murder of a youth at one such event around seven months ago.
"Marriage processions used to go around the major streets of the town and youngsters in particular used to love it. There used be a competition between DJ shops on whose music and numbers drew the maximum crowd," said Vijay Kumar, 30, a cab driver. DJ music was the highlight of
Ganesh visarjan processions as well. There are over 100 DJ shops in the district.
"But with no scope for DJ music at marriages here, these shops are dependent on offers from places like Hyderabad,
Kalaburagi and others. At the peak of the marriage season, DJ shops used to charge Rs 18,000 for a six-speaker music system which they called Half DJ. A full DJ (12 speakers) could cost up to Rs 40,000 per evening," Vijay said.
Shahabuddin of Taj DJ Sounds in
Humnabad, who is a DJ himself, explains that cops are strict these days. "Our business is mostly concentrated in other districts now. We charge Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000," he said. The DJ music shows usually play hit numbers from Hindi,
Kannada, Telugu and Marathi films.
Suresh Deshmukh, a hotel manager in Bidar, says the restriction on DJ music is a welcome step. "These music sessions used to be an irritation to residents as the DJ troupe never followed rules. Also, people used to get drunk and disturb others. The deadline of 10pm used to be violated and the party used to go on till midnight," he said.
Representative Image
