Bollywood with a beat drop

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Jhumkay sparkling under strobe lights. Sari blouses paired with leather pants. A.R. Rahman’s filmi hits seamlessly blending with Skrillex’s dubstep beats.  

These are the sights and sounds you can expect on the dance floor at parties hosted by Electric Desi — a new DJ collective that fuses Bollywood songs with electronic dance music, or EDM. It’s part of a growing movement in the tristate area to mix the genres, bringing the South Asian diaspora to electronic music. 

“Our dream is to fuse the two cultures and bring EDM to the mainstream for people that are from my background,” Amsal Valliani, the DJ behind Electric Desi, said. “And if you just put Desi vocals on top, it changes the whole game.” 

These events aren’t just Bollywood dance parties. Electric Desi and other South Asian event series like Indo Warehouse blend EDM genres like house, dubstep, and techno with Bollywood hits, Carnatic music, and other South Asian genres. That means “Rangilo Maro Dholna” with a beat drop, and “Sadi Gali” with a house remix. 

“We consider ourselves like a rave,” Valliani said. “And what that means is we're not the typical Bollywood party.” 

Beyond fusing the genres, the South Asian EDM scene stands apart from other South Asian club nights because of the intense visuals it incorporates – typically a mix of colorful, abstract backgrounds that move and flow to the beat of the music – signature to EDM concerts and festivals. 

“We want it to be an experience,” Valliani said. “We have a lot of production. We have lasers, we have lighting that goes with the music, we have visuals.” 

EDM venues in New York are catching on to the hype. Avant Gardner, a hub for EDM in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg, hosted Electric Desi’s debut show in 2023. The Bushwick staple The Sultan Room, a music venue-slash-doner kebab spot, frequently hosts South Asian DJs spinning fusion mixes, including EDM. Elsewhere, a Brooklyn rooftop, has featured sets from Pakistani-born, NYC-based artists ZEEMUFFIN and Armana Khan, who blend Desi music with global sounds in their unique styles. 

South Asian artists in the tristate are blending Desi music with electronic music alongside other global sounds, too. At Williamsburg’s Jolene Sound Room last weekend, AfroDesi had artists MR SAJ and DJ SUDI guide listeners through a mix of Bollywood, Dance Hall and Afrobeats.

This new wave of South Asian dance music is getting recognition beyond the tristate, too. Indo Warehouse, which took root in New York City in 2022, made its Coachella debut last month – bringing its signature “Indo House” sound to one of the biggest music festivals in the world. The two-weekend set solidified the DJ collective’s place as the first ever South Asian electronic dance act to take Coachella’s stage. 

For some, blending the genres is a gateway between two worlds. Vaibhav Mehta, 27, grew up between Edison and East Windsor, surrounded by a vibrant South Asian community and, as a result, Bollywood music. But it wasn’t until he went to a Flume concert in college that he discovered a love of EDM. After moving to the Lower East Side after college, he was thrilled to find spaces that blended the two. 

“Coming to New York, I was interested in going to Desi events and I found a lot of Desi-infused DJs,” Mehta said. “I was expecting the typical Bollywood songs, but I was really impressed with how they infuse transitions, the beat drops, the build-ups, the dancing.” 

Electronic music has roots across cultures and genres. In the U.S., music historians trace EDM back to 1970s disco, when artists like Donna Summer and George McCrae used drum machines and electronic instruments to create dance music, which later influenced the synthpop genre. In the ’80s, predominantly Black and queer DJs in Chicago and Detroit pioneered house and techno music, birthing new underground movements. The 2000s saw EDM’s global explosion, with artists like David Guetta and Tiësto pushing electronic sounds into the pop mainstream. 

But the South Asian EDM scene has only recently started taking shape. 

“I just never associated EDM with South Asians,” Mehta said. 

For Mehta, discovering South Asian EDM artists like KSHMR – named for the Kashmir region his father is from – opened his eyes to how electronic music can work with a South Asian twist. 

Breaking down barriers between South Asians and EDM spaces also shaped Valliani’s vision for Electric Desi. As an avid fan, he found EDM festivals to be a refuge for misfits where people came to make new friends. He wanted to replicate that vibe for the South Asian community – even if the heavy drum and bass, synths, and beat drops weren’t exactly the music they were used to hearing. 

“I just really had the urge to break that stigma around EDM,” he said. “And I thought, ‘This is the perfect opportunity to fuse the two cultures of EDM and Desi music, and then also make music for people who like EDM, who don't really feel like they can fit anywhere.”

Zoya Wazir is a 2024-25 reporting fellow at Central Desi. She also works as a production assistant at NBC News NOW, NBC News' streaming platform.

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