MUMBAI: DJ's are often not considered to be a part of the mainstream music in the country. Breaking the bastion, VJ turned DJ Nikhil Chinapa along with his property Submerge has announced the launch of Ultimate DJ championship in association with Burn and MTV.

Talking about the new initiative Nikhil Chinapa, "We have taken effort to unearth new talent in the country with the Sunburn Festival. This championship is a more serious step to give a platform to young budding DJ's as well as the established ones."

The championship is divided into two categories, Open Championship and Pro Championship. The Open Championship round is for individual DJ's only as stated by the official website. There will be four regional rounds in four cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru which will culminate in a grand finale to be held in Mumbai. Entries will be closed four days prior to each centers regional prelims.

The Pro Championship is meant for acts that include multiple members. The idea behind this category is, to bring to the fore never seen before talent. It could be a video jockey and a DJ working side by side or even a live electronica band like the Midival Punditz or Jalebee Cartel, said the website.

Mumbai will host the regional prelims on 3 September and the regional finals will take place the next day on 4 September, Bengaluru's prelims will be undertaken on 4 September where as the final will take place on 5 September. Delhi and Kolkata will take on the prelims on 10 September and the regional final on 11.

The Pro DJ championship national finals will take place in Mumbai on 17 September where as the national finals for Open Championship will be held in Delhi on 19 September.

The panel of judges who will decide the ultimate winner are John Fleming, DJ Pearl, Jalabee Cartel's Arjun Vagale, Tuhin Mehta from Brute Force, Sanjay Dutta and Asad along with Nikhil Chinapa. "All the judges are DJs with a minimum of 10 years experience. Most in fact, have almost 20 years of experience as DJs," added Chinapa on micro blogging site Twitter.

The event will also be featured on MTV as revealed by Chinapa "though our main focus will be the ground event."

The winner of the championship will become the official Submerge/MTV Resident DJ for a year. Along with this the winner will also win cash money, Pioneer DJ gear and a slot at a leading UK Festival. Added Chinapa, "UK undertakes several music festivals all year round. We have tied up with the British Council and the winning act will perform at one of the festivals in UK in 2011 though the festival is not yet zeroed upon."   

Click here for further details http://udc.submerge.in/

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