EDM Anyone?

A VJ, RJ, TV show host, entrepreneur, event promoter and one of the most popular Indian DJs, Nikhil Chinapa is everything most people hope to be and then some. Here is what we have from our chat with him.

This is not your first time performing here. What do you appreciate most about the city?
I love how Vizag is such a contrast to every other city I perform at, an escape from the city life to breathe fresh air. It’s actually the coastline that brings me back here. Every visit, I make it a point to take a stroll down the beach, look at Dolphin’s Nose and walk back.

You’ve travelled all over the globe performing. Which is your favourite place to perform?
Definitely Goa. What my wife Pearl and I love about the place is that you can just play music to the ocean, irrespective of whether or not someone is dancing in front of you. In 2003, she and I started playing music at a shack that belonged to a friend of ours on Baga beach called Zanzibar and over the next few years, this turned into a mini music festival. The beach party that Submerge used to do is the blueprint for the first electronic music festival, Sunburn.

What is your advice to the aspiring beginners in the city?
Find your own unique space. Don’t try to be a David Guetta or a Skrillex. We already have them. There is absolutely no substitute to practice. If you want to be a good DJ, the ten thousand rule applies here as well. If you want to be good at something, anything, you’ve got to spend 10,000 hours in practice.