Sholay Productions

I was visiting form out of town with two friends and we went to the Salaam Namaste 2010 NYE party organized by Sholay Productions. It was a total dud. The place was half empty. The music left much to be desired. And the layout and ambience resembled a wedding reception at a community hall. There were tables with diners and no proper dance space. The party was neither cozy nor edgy — just very unimaginatively done. It was $ 50 a person and we left in 1 hour, 20 minutes before midnight and entered a regular bar a few blocks away where we had some fun.

Kudos for this organization and for planning all these Sholay events. There aren’t any other groups like it from what I know and it’s pretty darn great! However, I must admit, the music could be MUCH better, as could the locations. Club Shelter is too ghetto and the $ 15 cover is quite unnecessary. Perhaps at Splash someone? It really is a much better location even though I don’t love Splash.

This little group of friends grew out of the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association to become a powerhouse of South Asian gay/​gay-​friendly events. It has had some growing up to do, but it’s gaining popularity. We’ve been to a couple of their events and plan to go to more… their parties are fun, though some of them can be a bit on the pricey side (for what its worth) when you take into account drinks and all that. But the music is always worth it. DJ Ashu knows how to spin the Bollywood remixes and modern Bhangra tunes! My partner got me into the desi music scene and Sholay’s parties are some of the most fun places for music and dance fans.
I’ve been told that the name Sholay is from a classic Hindi film (
) from 1975 starring Indian movie legend Amitabh Bachchan, which had serious gay subtext at its heart. I personally prefer Amitabh’s other gay-​subtext movie, Namak Haram (
).