DJ Donna has refined her tunes in 16 years and plans to drop a single soon

I LOVE MUSIC!” declares Prerona Chatterjee, who goes by the moniker DJ Donna behind the console, as soon as we begin our chat with the Behala girl. “I have been inclined towards music from the very beginning, and it gradually grew on me,” says the freelance DJ, who has travelled and performed extensively across the country and overseas, and is now based in Mumbai. From Delhi, Bengaluru a n d Hyderabad to Ranchi , Darjeeling and Dhanbad, she has left her mark across the map of India. On foreign shores, she has made people of Netherlands, Qatar, Doha, Nepal and Singapore dance to her tunes that are marked by Bollywood, hiphop, commercial, house, English retro and Latin music.

Donna, who started her career with The Park Hotel, Vizag in 2004, completes 16 years in the industry this year and has worked at top city properties like Taj Beng al, Aqua The Park, Shisha and others. She was ranked 12th among Top 50 DJs in India last month. Though she remembers her stint at Dublin, Tantra and Underground in Kolkata with fondness , she considers her term in Goa to be a landmark one. For the fan of DJ Nyk and DJ Ankytrixx, convincing her parents of her career choice was a challenge, but her struggle, Donna points out, was worth the effort. “Working in a male-dominated industry, female DJs are not always taken seriously, and 16 years have not been an easy journey. But now when I look back, I realise it wasn’t all that difficult either. Over the years, I have gained a lot of experiences, and it was all worth it,” says Donna, who also practises Latin dance, and is planning to drop new singles soon.