Drummers perform during a marriage procession in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 4: Drum beats are drowning out disc jockeys (DJs) and popular music bands from functions in the capital.

With the city police cracking down on errant bands, music parties and DJs for flouting noise pollution norms with their ear-splitting music, traditional drummers such as Bhagirathi Nayak are finding a foothold in marriage functions yet again.

“In the age of DJs and fast music, we were not getting enough work. But we are suddenly busy again. My dates are booked for the next two weeks,” said Bhagirathi, flashing a notebook in which he had jotted down dates on which his team would perform at marriage functions.

His troupe, which also performs the famous Sambalpuri dance and music, demands nearly Rs 10,000 for each marriage function. “Normally, we charge Rs 6,000. But such bumper occasions come once in a blue moon. We are very poor, so we thought it best to cash in on the opportunity,” Bhagirathi’s business partner Bidyadhar Nayak said.

The police crackdown on bands and music parties has come as a blessing in disguise for a host of traditional drummers and dancers in the city and its outskirts. Almost all marriage organisers are keen to hire the traditional drummers to avoid police interference.

“We did not want to take any risk by hiring DJs, as they might invite the wrath of the police. So on June 29, I booked some traditional drum beaters,” said Nilamani Pradhan, a resident of the capital.

“I know marriages do not look snazzy without DJs and music and band parties. But I had no other option,” Pradhan added.

The Commissionerate Police has recently conducted raids on a number of music and band parties for flouting the Loudspeaker Act. “We have seized musical instruments from nearly twenty music and band parties for flouting the norms. The owners can retrieve the instruments after getting permission from the Orissa High Court,” said a senior police official, who requested anonymity.

The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police recently made it mandatory for band and music parties to install sound limiters to amplifiers to ensure that the sound output does not exceed 65 decibels.

But the band parties have given the guideline the go by.

Not less than 300 band and music parties and about 250 DJs are operating in Bhubaneswar, sources said.

Meanwhile, it is the Punjabi dhol that is ruling the roost in marriage processions in the city. “People are going for the Punjabi dhol for marriage processions. We demand more than Rs 12,000 per marriage function. In our troupe, five of us beat the drums in the Punjabi style,” said Sona, a drummer who beats the Punjabi dhol.

On the other hand, the beleaguered band party owners called on the city police commissioner once again yesterday to appeal to him to relax the restrictions.

“But the commissioner did not listen to us. He asked us to install the (sound limiter) gadget at the earliest,” said Prasant Sahoo, a band party owner.

A few days back, the band party owners also approached the police commissioner with the same appeal, but their appeal too fell on deaf ears. The band party operators have been claiming that they are getting the sound limiters in Orissa.

Traditional Sambalpuri dance and music of the state used to be a rage among youths during marriage processions in the 1980s and 1990s. “Our troupe had travelled a number of districts to perform Sambalpuri dance and music in the 1980s and ’90s,” Bhagirathi Nayak said.

According to residents of Sambalpur district, the folk dance was widely acknowledged in Russia in 1965.