7 minutes with...DJ Abhijeet

Popular radio DJ talks to Insider about friends in high places and his favourite sounds ahead of next big Bollywood party night...

Bollywood and Bhangra are the ‘in sounds’ at monthly club night Karma. Ahead of the next party, at the Holiday Inn on July 12, we caught up with popular radio DJ Abhijeet Adhvaryu to hear a little more about what’s in store for clubbers looking for something different.

Bollywood and Bhangra? That sounds interesting, tell us more...

Karma launched a monthly ‘desi’ night in June and everyone went absolutely nuts. Desi music is from back home, either film music or Indian pop. Bhangra means pure Punjabi music, it has become very popular in the past few years. Bollywood releases a couple of great tracks every month, so there are plenty of great songs out there. I’m a DJ on the channel Suno 102.4 every day 7pm-10pm and get plenty of requests, so I know what’s popular!

What artists should we be listening out for?

Within the last year, Bollywood has seen a different trend with a lot of Punjabi songs. One, Yo Yo Honey Singh, has had a load of hits recently. He’s huge. He’s a rapper and producer and he’s a standout. There’s also Mika Singh, who is a singer and producer, he’s also fantastic and very popular.

So are these guys big stars? 

When their songs are played people tend to go through the roof! One of Mika Singh’s songs on the ‘Desi Boyz’ film soundtrack (Subha Hone Na De) always goes down a real storm. Actually, they are big stars but they are really good guys. I know them very well, I’ve interviewed them before and I’ve also seen them in action in the recording studio. They can be really impromptu and do their own thing.

So is it a full-on Indian party night?

We’ll be playing songs from the top 40 of the international charts too, so there should be plenty of other songs. Songs from stars like Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj (pictured) and LMFAO. I get requests for these all the time. We’ll be playing across the board, from house to hip hop to garage. These songs go very well with the Bollywood songs. Rumour has it that Lady Gaga is doing something in Bollywood. There’s a great

crossover just now!

You obviously love your music, what’s your background?

I’ve been a DJ on the radio for over 13 years now in this part of the world. I’ve been doing a request show for almost eight years so it’s a great way of knowing both what songs are in the top 40 and what songs people really want to listen to. I think that helps in club DJing too - you get a feel for what people really want to hear when they are partying. I moved to DJing as a teenager and started on the radio aged 17. We got a great response at the last Karma so I hope we’ll have a great end-of-season send off this time.