1. Nikhil Chinapa on his exit from Sunburn and parting ways with Percept

[Originally posted on Nikhil Chinapa's Facebook on 18th Sept 2013](https://www.facebook.com/notes/10159133944694574/)

**It's time to say something..**

Many of you have known for a while that all was not well between Sunburn and me, but I'd hoped things would be resolved. But it now appears from videos and other public statements that I've been pushed out of Sunburn - a festival that I conceptualised, gave it's name to and helped create.

I guess that's life. Score one for big business.

However Pearl and I will still be on a beach in Goa in December and will still be working with SUBMERGE - a company that's pioneered dance music in India since 2003. This was the company that through countless club events, dozens of DJs, it's legendary Zanzibar beach parties and it's online forum community, helped create the blueprint for Sunburn.

Let's not forget that the scene we have in India today with festivals and the world's biggest artists playing here has been built on a foundation of DJs and fans that have been championing this sound since the late 80s. Yes, our dance music scene has been around for over 25 years. 

Ask Midival Punditz, Whosane!, Asad, Jazzy Joe, Ivan, Ashley, Kris Correa, Nasha, Akhtar, Sanjay Dutta, Clement, Rummy Sharma, Akbar Sami, LLoyd, Sunny Sarid and countless Djs who've been around since then. Besides the DJs, I cannot even begin to thank the community that has nurtured the scene, supported the music and stood by us over the years - particularly these past few difficult months.

Submerge has just launched AAA with Edge Global and Hermit, Pearl and I will continue to work with our friends to promote the music we love.

Finally when all this blows over, it won't matter who did what, where and when... who's logo was on stage or who brought Tiesto, SHM, David Guetta or eventually Deadmau5 to India.

What will matter is the music and that's something we at Submerge will never forget.

\--

2. Nikhil Chinapa and the birth of VH1 Supersonic

[Originally posted on Nikhil Chinapa's Facebook on 2nd Nov 2015](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AoD5vtY14/)

I guess it’s time to tell this story now, the birth of many things and amongst them – a new beach music festival.

Before we go there, let me explain why I look like I’ve got Louis Vuitton bags under my eyes. I didn’t know it then, but at Vh1 Supersonic last year, I was in the middle of a severe Thyroid illness that hadn’t been detected as yet. I was constantly exhausted, lost 12 kilos in 50 days and I had no idea what was wrong with me. One of the side effects of this illness are monstrous bags under the eyes.

Now you know.

Soon after I made a Facebook post about me leaving the festival I had created ([https://www.facebook.com/notes/nikhil-chinapa/its-time-to-say-something/10152256073559832](https://www.facebook.com/notes/10159133944694574/?__cft__[0]=AZbxt6swJu8VnrFgU5FMrOnb3U9tC59Q-AuHJ3TL3r-0vrvFfEF6Y9snWUu5TbBkGmy2ndZ6qIYbUawn64o-R7qP7DCiCQJQ3N97ch4L6WFeAIISEFU0KUvzZ4NWwDuIFAPiJqurw6BatqN46Z4dHdpDJjlyv9BVeT0Gy4QGohmHGXcJug6p2W1rwf5wR8kg1uA&__tn__=-UK-R)), I got a call from a close friend Sandeep Raju in Bangalore who wanted me to meet a few people. I'd known Sandeep for many years as he was a partner in Fuga, a club that redefined Bangalore's music scene along with Submerge, which held a continuous Sunday residency there for 5 years. Fuga, Submerge, the Djs and the dancers were the bedrock of Bangalore's clubbing community.

The people I met were all friends of Sandeep’s and were called the Starlight Group. At the first meeting, I met Shailesh Shetty and Ashwin Raiker and subsequently, Raghav Holla and Uday Singh.

They told me that they had a long lease on a particular stretch of land in Goa, a stretch where I had been doing a festival for several years. Apparently, the owners of the land had expressed a desire to partner with Starlight after tiring of their erstwhile tenants.

Despite me now not being involved in the festival I started in 2007, Pearl, Hermit and I had already decided that we would be in Goa for our annual Submerge sessions, but this new development was becoming very interesting.

What was even more interesting is that they had also started a conversation with Vaicom18’s Jaideep Singh, who having launched the company's new live division, wanted to expand into the electronic festival space.

It wasn’t long before we had all traveled to Goa, visited the new festival site (I knew it well) and had decided to throw our hat in the ring. We then went about finding a name for the festival.

Several were tossed around, bounced around and tossed out. I had a name in my head, but didn’t like it enough. It had been stuck in my head after my friend Dhruv Pande (airline pilot and sibling of Channel V presenter Juhi Pande) sent me a text message for my birthday about 6 years ago. The message simply said, “Happy Birthday Chinups. Go Supersonic!”

I tossed the name out in a brainstorming session with a “umm, it’s nice but I’m not sure.” Apparently everyone else was sure and the name stuck. So Supersonic it was.

We then went on a mad scramble to tie together everything the festival needed. My partner in crime Riad Saha and I spent several sleepless nights discussing and contacting artists. A few of my closest friends – Nawed Khan, Tuhin Mehta and Rohit Barker rallied around. The support coming in from all corners was staggering. Ambika Muttoo, Ashish Parmar, Sanjay Dutta, Vachan Chinnappa, Oum Pradutt, Raghu, Mekhla, Akshay, Shilpa, Kaycee, Mackie, Nisha Harale, Ramona Arena, Jaskaran, Adeel, Basith, Ronnie, Guha, Nulkar and Nishant all had my back … and these are just a few of the names. Most importantly, I had the unquestioning support of my brother Hermit for what I was doing. With all the pieces of the puzzle falling into place, JD, Starlight and I announced the festival to the world.

Then the shit hit the fan.

We were immediately hit by multiple lawsuits. Through all the baseless allegations of intellectual theft, JD stood like the rock of Gibraltar and weathered the storm. The owner of the festival land – Danny Nunez was hit by a lawsuit. Bizarrely, I too was accused of theft. Apparently I had stolen “ideas”. That’s a bit rich, considering all the ideas in these dance music festivals were Pearl’s and mine to start with, gathered from years of traveling to Ibiza and clubs around the world.

I won’t go into more details but I will say this. My beautiful, resolute, Punjabi wife Pearl stopped her entire life at that time and went to battle for me. One woman against a conglomerate. With Xerxes Ranina (a Godsend) and our lawyers from Neolegal, she worked on the case tirelessly and stood in High Court on my behalf so I could be in Goa with the rest of the team to build the impossible. A full-blown FIVE day festival in 23 days. On Christmas eve, she called me from Court with the news that I was free to continue work on the festival for now. For me, that first festival was dedicated entirely to Pearl.

Around the same time, she had a fight on her hands with the same people on the Submerge front too, but that’s a story for another day.

Safe to say, I married a warrior.

Meanwhile Shailesh in Goa (on extreme right in the first group photograph) was facing enormous ridicule from the local community. How could he, who had no experience in music festivals, go up against an established festival brand? He heard it from friends, the local authorities and hundreds of naysayers. It was like water off a duck’s back for Shailu. Starlight had its own share up support from their closest friends, but the negativity they faced was staggering. It’s safe to say that if it wasn’t for his bulldog-like determination (he looks like a teddy bear though), we wouldn’t have managed to put the festival up in Goa. He worked against all odds and in the face of severe cynicism, to help us build the impossible. That first year was rough on all of us, but I think it was particularly harsh on Shailu.

JD too had his share of monumental challenges. Pulling a team together, working through endless details with Ashwin, Uday and Shailesh and finding us sponsorship in a ridiculously tight time frame. All along, legal battles were being fought and JD faced his share of that too.

Eventually, those trying to stop us couldn’t do it. Through all the allegations levelled against us all, the truth prevailed.

The buildup to that first festival was phenomenal on many levels. First was the support of dance music fans. Pearl and I knew we’d get some support from the community, but I didn’t know it would be this much! We made many new friends through those days – most for life and we also found out who our real friends were. We feel blessed to have them in our lives.

Then there was a blessing called Above & Beyond. They’d already booked their NYE dates but Tony decided to cancel his holiday and get on a plane to be with us at the festival’s first edition. It’s one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received.

Scores of my friends in the DJing community rallied around too. I asked them if they could make the date and several of them stepped up to the plate. Look at the 2013 lineup and you'll see who I mean. Riad and I were building a credible lineup for our first edition.

Meanwhile the entire team – the SuperCrew - worked as a frenzied, chaotic multi-tasking organism, limbs flailing everywhere. The production house Cineyug came in with invaluable advise and support, manning the trenches on the ground. In that first year, there were no team leaders and no followers. We all got up and did what we had to. For that I will eternally be grateful to Gaurav Lulla, Indraneil Sengupta, Anil Lale, Arijit Basu, Arnaz Kolah, Disha Rampal, Shivi Kundra, Thomas George, Vaibhav Mehta, Dhananjay, Kanishka Bannerjee, Shane Dsouza, Sameet Sharma, Sreeram Ramanathan, Akshay Bhansali, Swaroop Bannerjee, Meenal Maharaj, Pavneet Gakhal, Surabhi Capoor, Shweta Bhatia, Saloni Handa, Ahad Merchant, Arjan Maini,Ashish Sethi, Darryl Mascarenhas, Harpreet Singh, Nikhil Patil,Nickleson George,Nishita Sharma, Ruchi Baggal, Suraj Karvi and scores more. Riad Saha and I handled dozens upon dozens of artist emails and he brought in Ali Sachedina, a close friend from New York who is still our legal counsel. Mountains of contracts were dealt with simultaneously..

..and the Bass stage was born.

Ali walked into the office one day about a month before the festival was to open gates. “They wanted to book about 100 + artists in their first year” recalls Ali. “I asked them how many they had contracted. The answer was “zero”.”

Nothing could happen without contracts that both the artist and Viacom’s legal arm were happy with. Artists couldn’t get paid, flights wouldn’t get booked and visas wouldn’t get issued. Ali went to work on a mountain of paperwork with a vengeance.

While we worked together in a small space at the office, Riad Saha and me banging out emails and Ali with his head under a pile of contracts, I discovered that Ali was also huge Drum and Bass fan. He was always playing these cool DnB sets on his laptop while we worked and all of it sounded awesome!

I knew that our new festival had to be different – it had to stand apart from what had gone before and it had to have balance. We had to represent not just the mainstream sound, but also the alternate. So one day while Ali was cranking out another Bass set in that tiny cabin, I looked up at him and asked, “Hey Ali, do you wanna build the Bass stage for us?”

“I immediately jumped at the opportunity but it dawned on me that while I was a fan of bass music (drum n bass, grime, dub step, future bass, etc) I didn’t know any of the artists very well” admitted Ali. “Prashant Mistry aka “Engine Earz” happened to be in Mumbai recording and finishing up a series of shows so I called him into the office and suggested that the two of us book that stage together.” Ali said.

“Prash started calling his friends that very first day…turns out his friends are some of the biggest baddest names in the UK bass music scene. We invited Ollie BareNoize, KillSonik, Benny Page and most crucially: Orifice Vulgatron aka Pavan Mukhi of the UK Hip Hop crew, Foreign Beggars.”

That sealed the deal. Work became even more frenetic but we effectively had the nucleus of what was going to become the baddest Bass stage in Asia. Little did we realize at that point, but the final piece of the puzzle to bring Skrillex to India had just fallen into place as well.

There’s more to this story, but I’ll let Ali tell it in his own words.

You’ll have to wait a little for that though.

Nikhil Chinapa's exit from Sunburn and the birth of VH1 Supersonic