VJ Nikhil Chinappa comes clean...
Addiction No. 1: Dancing I've always been into dancing — right from my college days in Bangalore. Everybody used to go out as couples to dance at this little place called The Club. There were no big discotheques at that time. So this former skating rink that had been covered with a thatched roof, a good sound system thrown in along with four to five air-conditioners that never worked, was just fine for us!
But the music was abso mind-numbing there. My girlfriend at the time, Rakhi, just couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t dance with her. For me, it was all about dancing with the music — it didn’t matter whether I had someone to dance with or not; I’d dance with the speaker. And she’d get really upset ‘coz I’d have my eyes closed all the time, just enjoying the music.
LOSING IT! My first ‘real’ dance experience happened much later, at a nightclub in Bali called Double Six. I started dancing around 2.30 am and went on continuously till 7.30. I danced for five hours non-stop and was completely soaked in sweat.
They give you 12 bottles of mineral water and I drank all of them. I never went to the loo even once! And when I took off my shoes, I realised that I had lost my first toenail — it had turned black from the impact, as if beaten in by a hammer.
Because of that experience I stayed on for another week and that was when I understood the whole thing about giving yourself up to the music.
MUSIC MAGIC In Mumbai, if you go out to a nightclub on any given Saturday, chances are you’ll hear everything from ‘Bhangra’ to pop to Indi-pop to disco to techno. It’s a bit of a hodge-podge. I don’t like that! I like dancing to funky house, progressive and tribal house — which is basically all house music. I’ve enjoyed the raves in Goa. You don’t have to do drugs to enjoy trance music; that’s crap. All I can say is: Get a life!
Thereafter, I’d gone to England to do a shoot, and one night ended up in a London nightclub called Heaven. Now, this place is anything but its name: It has extremely low roofs, it’s dingy and has sticky floors that never seem to be cleaned. And I was dancing without my shirt, feeling completely free, and that’s where I heard John Digweed playing — one of the best DJs in the world. That’s when I decided that I had to come back next year and do a proper clubbing holiday.
SHE LOST IT TOO! Then I started going out with a woman who’s also part of the dance club scene. She’s a DJ from Delhi called Pearl and together we went clubbing to Goa that year. Pearl lost four toenails, and that’s when I knew I was with someone in the same league.
So we did a clubbing holiday last year, where we spent one week each just continuously clubbing in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Ibiza and London. At the end of it all, we were pretty trashed, but it was great fun! We’re planning on doing it again this year but only for 10 days in Ibiza — which is pretty much the party capital of the world.
Addiction No. 2: Nude Beach Parties One of the craziest times I’ve ever had was at a shack party on a beach in Ibiza, Selinas. It was my first such experience and it was pretty interesting! But you don’t get aroused because everyone around you is naked and moreover, people there were old, and the wibbly-wobblys aren’t what you’d think about! But it was nice to jump into a warm ocean naked. Bliss.
Addiction No. 3: Jewellery And Tattoos Another thing people are always asking me about is my jewellery! I just love silver. It started off with one thumb ring and then just carried on.
I also have tattoos: Gandolph from Lord Of The Rings on one arm and Hot Stuff on the other. These are characters that even my grandchildren will appreciate. And, if somehow I could ever turn into one piece of jewellery, I’d really love to be a silver nipple-ring on Salma Hayek!
Nikhil Chinappa spoke to Farhad J Dadyburjor
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