Meet the boys from Dharavi who’ve got India grooving to the sound of discarded slum waste

They have no formal training in music and use waste materials such as empty plastic bottles, paint buckets, cans and water barrels as instruments. But when on stage, these bunch of teenagers can make even the most arrhythmic of people sway to their cheerful music. Meet Dharavi Reloaded (DR), a band of 20-odd teenagers from Mumbai. As the name suggests, DR is a band of slum dwellers from Asia’s second biggest slum who rocked Hyderabad recently with their brand of “junk percussion”.
“This is our third visit to Hyderabad in three years. It’s always a pleasure to perform in the city because the audience here is open to new musical genres and experiments. Since the concept of our band is unique, it perfectly complements the open-mindedness of the Hyderabadi audience,” says Abhijit Jejukar, the brain behind the band. Dharavi Reloaded began in 2009, when Abhijit first moved to Mumbai and in a bid to give something back to the society, conceptualised the band. “It has been a wonderful journey since. Today, the guys have performed around 200 shows across the country and have also collaborated with many national and international musicians and bands such as Karsh Kale, Agni and Indian Ocean, among others. They also have the likes of Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan heaping praises on them,” says Abhijit, who works as a marketing professional by day and teaches music to the boys at night.
Abhijit admits that initially, it wasn’t an easy task to convince the kids’ parents to allow their children to learn music. “All the kids are from conservative Muslim families and their parents aren’t very open about allowing them to play music. But slowly things changed when their names started appearing in newspapers and television. Today, the kids are also contributing their bit towards sustaining their families with the money they make through their concerts. So, their parents are cool about it,” says Abhijit, adding that each member today earns over Rs 10,000 per month.
The band primarily plays African world music, a rhythm-driven genre, and is accompanied by a few rappers, singers and instrumentalists. “It’s true that Dharavi is the second biggest slum in Asia, but many people don’t know that it’s also the second largest recycling hub in the continent. So, our band uses all the waste products to create music. We segregate waste products into various instruments. For instance, barrels as bass drums, empty cans and paint buckets as high-hats and snares, and so on. In fact, we fill up plastic water bottles with sand and use them as shakers,” he says, adding that owing to their growing popularity across the country, the band today has incorporated popular genres such as Bollywood, pop, metal and patriotic numbers into their musical repertoire.
Currently, Abhijit, in a bid to expand the band, is putting together a female version of Dharavi Reloaded. “We are thinking of putting together an all-girl band. Like Dharavi Reloaded, this too will comprise of girls from the slum. Currently we are working towards it with the working title ‘Dharavi Butterflies’,” Abhijit says, adding that, unlike their male counterparts, this all-girl band will concentrate mostly on singing choir music.