Established in 2007 in Bijuli Bazaar, over 150 students have already passed from the institution where the promising DJ of the town, DJ Raju, provides the lecture and gives practical sessions to students. Founded by Subodh Acharya almost three years back, Acharya came up with a plan to open an academic institute to learn the basic of DJ-ing after he saw its scope in other places of the world. He highly got influenced from Pune. Soon, he kept in touch with DJ Raju and both decided to run the institute.
Today BOOM International claims to have its product spread as DJs in almost all the celebrated clubs and pubs of the town. Apart from providing academic courses and counseling, BOOM International has also opened itself to providing DJs for personal parties and celebrations.
“This will be an opportunity for the beginner DJs to prove their skills and sell their names. This will also help many get their pocket money,” shared Acharya of the institute.
Though it has been some three years, BOOM International has however not been able to provide advanced course on DJ. And the reason Acharya explains is the lack of professional DJs in town. “There’s hardly anyone here who’s earned a professional degree in the field from abroad. That’s why we’ve been limiting ourselves to providing just basic course of two-month duration.”
But in a country like Nepal where clubbing culture is young but mushrooming, to have an institute like BOOM is a fresh beginning that indicates a better scenario in the near future, believes Acharya. Those who come to take classes are mostly students of Plus2-level and those who are on vacation after completing their secondary level of education. But adds Acharya, BOOM is equally open to household DJs of the town if they want to attain a professional way of learning.
Apart from students, Acharya has often seen British Lahures coming to join the course.
“It’s surprising to see many British Lahures interested in taking up our DJ course while they come to Nepal for a vacation. British Lahures have many community parties abroad and they want to know the basics of mixing sounds so that they can play the dance numbers differently when they are back in their professions,” Acharya explained.
Acharya further revealed that people are now keener on hiring DJs for private parties and this has helped many beginners find jobs.
But are DJs supposed to entertain private functions?
Acharya answered, “To go by the name, a DJ is one who makes people shake their legs through his/her rhythms inside a club or disco. Mind you, those who have never played in a disco can’t be called DJs technically. Ironically, we have a lot of people in town who’ve never mixed rhythms inside a discotheque but they’re fond of calling themselves DJs.
Talking about if a DJ should be entertaining private parties or not, it’s fine as long as he knows what he’s supposed to do.”
However, many DJs aren’t treated with the respect that they deserve while they work for private functions like weddings and birthday parties. Acharya elaborates that a DJ should be left free to play his choice of music. He shouldn’t be asked to play the same track over and again.
Though BOOM International pushed hard to produce female DJs in Nepal, it however failed getting female applicants.
“Because DJs’ life begins after midnight, we realized that Nepali girls aren’t comfortable working late hours, especially because of the security problems,” Acharya said.
For now, BOOM is making sure that it keeps up with its objective to promote its DJ-ing course so that those who are doing the practical can also be sharp with the theories. To make this happen, BOOM promises to host a Battle of the DJs event in the capital soon.
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