DJ Ritu

DJ Ritu co-founded Club Kali, following the founding of the South Asian Gay and Lesbian group Shakti. Ritu grew up in east London in the 1960s and 1970s and developed her interest in music while at school. In 1981 she enrolled at Chelsea School of Art to study painting. Ritu was closely involved with Shakti and was part of its housing co-operative and management committee. During the 1980s she worked as a youth worker and youth centre manager for Haringey Council, whilst DJing. After the opening of the London Lesbian and Gay Centre in Farringdon in 1985, she evolved the soundscape away from pop towards a more global sound. In 1988 she spearheaded Shakti Disco as a fundraising initiative for the recently founded Shakti, as part of her work on the management committee and as a founding member. For Shakti Disco, Ritu’s set included Greek, Turkish, Arabic and South Asian tracks. In 1989 Ritu began to DJ as part of a residency at Islington’s Paradise Club and also became involved with ASIA, the first gay world music club in the UK. She became the first resident DJ of South Asian music at ASIA after the club’s promoters approached her to become its bhangra DJ.

DJ Ritu established herself as a pioneer of the 1980s and 1990s Asian Underground and bhangra scenes and countercultural soundscapes and spaces. This also led to her developing a successful radio broadcasting career. In the early 1990s she presented the programme Bhangra in Beds on BBC Radio Bedfordshire, which was syndicated to the Germany, Sweden and Turkey. She also presented Bhangra Beats for the BBC World Service and was a presenter on the BBC Asian Network. In 2006 she began her long-running series A World in London, first broadcast on BBC London in 2006, a programme she revived during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 1994 she co-founded the influential label Outcaste Records, which worked with artists such as Nitin Sawhney and Asian Dub Foundation. After founding Club Kali in 1995, she also established the South Asian club night Kuch Kuch Bollywood Nights, which has been running for over twenty-three years. Over her long career, she has toured in more than thirty-five countries with her bands Sister India and The Asian Equation. She is the co-founder of two leading and long-running London club nights, the SOAS Concert Series Producer, a member of the Mayor’s London Music Board and part of the European World Music Charts panel. She was awarded an MBE for services to music and broadcasting in 2023.