DJ Megha Kawale

If not a DJ and model, she would have been a “housewife”, says 27-year-old Megha Kawale. Once you have a chat with this 5 ft 10 lissome lass ? witty, poised and soft spoken ? you know she would fit into any role smoothly. While the homemaker bit features nowhere on the horizon and modelling happens to be just a hobby, spinning music is where DJ Megha’s heart lies.

“My grandfather played the tabla and my aunt the violin. Though music was never taken up seriously in our family, it was somewhere there always. I have loved music all my life, keeping track of the Grammies closely and enjoying Madonna and Michael Jackson. Generally, I have a bad memory but not when it comes to music,” she laughs.

“DJing is a passion, something that keeps me closely connected to music,” smiles the 2001 Miss India finalist.

In Calcutta to rock Tantra at The Park on Saturday and Sunday nights, “playing for the crowd” is Megha’s priority. But maintaining individuality is also a must, she feels. So Megha tries to make sure that it is not an “out and out Himesh Reshammiya night” but a mix and match of hip hop that the crowd would still freak out on.

Coming from a conservative business family and boasting a Bachelor’s degree in history from Ferguson College, Pune, DJing happened by chance. “When in college, I came to know that The 1900’s, the nightclub in Taj Mahal, Mumbai, was looking for a female DJ. I went for the auditions and got selected”

But DJing was not an easy task when the Mumbai girl started off eight years ago. Her “sincerity” and “hard work” saw her through many ups and downs. “Initially, I was not taken seriously and my family was sceptical. It was not so much about proving it as a woman in a man’s world, but more about coping with the odds and being the best as an artiste.”

Now, Megha is happy with the way DJing has become a promising career option for youngsters. “It is no longer considered a profession for junkies, something taken up by college dropouts,” she smiles.

After five years with Taj Mahal, it was a brief stint with Mikanos Club, Mumbai, before Megha started freelancing. Switzerland, Germany, Africa, Dubai, Jaipur, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat? DJing took Megha places.

She has just come back from the US where she played at Sound Bar & Sayatnova in Chicago and Avalon in San Francisco and will be back in the US in June end.

If DJing has made Megha a globetrotter, so has her stint on the ramp. A part of India Fashion Week in Delhi in 2001, 2002 and 2003, Megha has also walked the ramp in Milan, London, Belgium, Florence, Geneva, Singapore, Dhaka and Sri Lanka.

Her modelling credits include working for leading designers like Rocky S, Ritu Beri, Tarun Tahiliani, Manish Malhotra and Hemant Trevedi.