What do you like about the crowds in Ahmedabad?
I have done some really nice parties in Ahmedabad. The crowd are very open and appreciative of good music, unlike bigger cities like Mumbai where people are sometimes ‘too cool’ to enjoy good music. They often don’t dance on the floor thinking that their make-up will go away, their hair is sweating so gel will go and all that! Amdavadis do not have such frills when they come to a party! At my gig I will be playing House music because that’s what crowds like here.
What puts you off when you play music?
Another thing I don’t like about people when I play at some places is that they expect a deejay to play their favourite requests. I play only what I love and it is my responsibility to entertain the crowds. But if you are wanting to listen to a Punjabi song in the middle of some interesting English songs I am playing, then you should go home or your car and play your song. The minute you play a favourite request the person will go home! Why would I want that? I like people who have high levels of energy. Unlike to what people think, the last gig I enjoyed the most was in
Will you pursue acting in films? Why did you connect with the masses?
I like Bejoy (Nambiar) so I worked in Shaitan and David. I think I connected as a deejay or vee-jay with the masses because I was very cool about what I liked and what I didn’t like. I hated maths, I loved chemisty and I said it! I didn’t take off my clothes on stage to look cooler but I loved my music and digged my heels into it and did it right.I started deejaying 10 years back and people are loving electronic dance music now. I even know that I am not a great deejay and there are many better deejays in the country. But I got many good deejays to perform for my company.
Don’t you feel people miss the shows on MTV where VJs presented music?
Not at all. MTV is a youth channel and a major research goes into what they show on television. In the past 6 years, trends have changed. When I was in college, TV played music constantly, and you waited for your veejay to play or recommend new songs ….now its You tube and Internet. I feel MTV is 100 percent right on the content and yes the number of people who want VJs are much smaller today. Nobody wants to watch veejays recommend songs on television.
Do you feel that there was a greater recall value for the kind of western music played at gigs before than now?
Every generation has felt that their music is the best but change is constant, today a cold play band song has an enormous following like Eric Clapton had its followers in his time. In fact I am constantly fascinated by the variety of bands and singers who are emerging on the party scene. There is a lot of new disco that s coming out here. When I started my own company and my first party we threw in a club that had 800 capacity and we only had 42 people on the floor. But we had so much fun playing for them, and we did what we felt right. Today my company is doing 7 gigs in 2 days in 2-3 different cities.
Sources: Nikhil Chinappa’s Interview in Times of India (AM):
