Far Out Left - Every festival lineup poster 2018-2024

Magnetic Fields Festival - Every festival lineup poster 2013-2026

VH1 Supersonic - Every festival lineup poster 2013-2024

Sunburn Festival - Every festival lineup poster 2007-2025

Magnetic Fields Festival - Every festival lineup poster 2013-2026

VH1 Supersonic - Every festival lineup poster 2013-2024

Sunburn Festival - Every festival lineup poster 2007-2025

At the 2014 Sunburn festival, an explosive controversy occurred when Shailendra Singh ordered Sunburn performing artist BLOT! (Gaurav Malaker) to leave the festival grounds due to the artist also having earlier attended and wearing a VH1 Supersonic wrist-band. The artist was escorted by security and later recounted his experience in a scathing Facebook note titled "The Politics of Dance and Other Short Stories". The incident was also covered by The Wild City.

Malaker, in a Facebook note titled ‘The Politics of Dance and Other Short Stories’, has stated that on 29 December, a day after he visited VH1 Supersonic, he was noticed by Singh at the Sunburn “artist village”, particularly by the other festival bands he was wearing. Singh, who was being escorted by bodyguards, allegedly pointed out the Supersonic band and asked Malaker why he had that band on, to which the DJ said that he had checked out Supersonic the previous day.

The answer seemed to have infuriated Singh because he supposedly responded, “You might be a whore and like whoring yourself out but I don’t appreciate it. You can’t come to my house wearing my rival festivals band.”

Unfortunately for Malaker, Singh asked him to leave the artist lounge immediately, with which he complied since there was a bodyguard ushering him out. Malaker, however, has not left all that quietly. In the aftermath of the incident, he has taken to one of the most powerful tools right now- social media, to voice his thoughts.

Malaker goes on to emphasise to Singh that “artists you book for your festival are not your employees, and are not bound by your megalomania”. He also added that while he chose to play at Sunburn, he decided to visit Supersonic because he likes music and supports other artists and friends by watching them play.

The musician, who is also a partner in Qilla Records, went on to list several other things that Singh should have spent time looking into. Malaker also added, “Sunburn is not a playground for you to unleash your ego like its some sort of untamed stallion. It is (or was) a music festival. Sure, It might be a ‘brand’ for you but it is a music festival for most others.”

His rather detailed note says, “It really is unfortunate (and at once exciting) that one can affect the Inceptor of Sunburn and man with many talents (source: www.shailendra-singh.com) Mr Shailendra Singh so deeply, merely by visiting another festival in Goa. Perhaps, even more tragic is that he appears to think he has the right to decide where I, (or anyone else), choose to go.”

The matter blew up on social media due to Singh's abusive language and also drew satirical reactions by Nikhil Chinapa and NH7 Weekender/OML head Vijay Nair on Twitter.

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

Originally posted on Nikhil Chinapa's Facebook on 18th Sept 2013

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

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), 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.

Writer's note - This is a sensitive story and it may appear that I have a slight bias towards one side or the other, but I will attempt to be neutral and just present facts so as to not create a narrative. All sources have been posted at the end so pls read for yourself and make up your own mind.

----

The Infamous Sunburn Split - How Nikhil Chinapa (Submerge) & Shailendra Singh (Percept) parted ways - A timeline presented in 6 parts.

Pictured: Nikhil Chinapa and Shailendra Singh at Sunburn 2009

-

Part 1 - Prologue: 

In 2007, Nikhil Chinapa from Submerge co. collaborated with Shailendra Singh of Percept co. to create Sunburn - a flagship multi-stage electronic dance music festival in Goa.

Chinapa and co., worked with the artists and stage curation, and Percept handled all the big-picture logistics and infrastructure. They had landmark lineups and massive crowds, and was one of the jewels of Goa's end-of-the-year music scene. The festival grew year-on-year and by 2010-11-12 Sunburn was at its peak with major mainstream popularity and incredible revenue generation.

-

Part 2 - The Split: 

By 2013, the working relationship between both parties had broken down and there were disagreements on many fronts including the festival's future direction and vision (conflict of artistic vs commercial). The issue received widespread media reporting, and both sides presented their own view on what really happened.

-

Part 3a - Shailendra Singh (Percept's) view: 

Singh claims Sunburn was a Percept intellectual property and that Nikhil and Submerge had no role to play in the festival any longer due to conflicts of interest. While he had previously publicly described Nikhil as the Sunburn Festival Director and co-founder, he later said the ousting was an intentional business decision made by Percept's management.

Part 3b - Nikhil Chinapa (Submerge's view): 

Chinapa claims he was the one who conceptualized and created Sunburn, and that while he knew there were issues between both parties, he expected them to be eventually resolved. But later he was removed from the organization and the festival he brought to life without his knowledge. He refrained from publicly commenting on any rumors until Oct 2013 when he posted a note on Facebook announcing his exit from Sunburn.

-

Part 4 - Post the split - ugliness in the media and a brewing business and political rivalry:

By the second half of 2013, rumors of the split had become public and news outlets reported Sept 2013 as when it was formalized. 

Chinapa in Oct 2013 was approached by Viacom 18, the owners of VH1 India, to lead a brand new property called VH1 Supersonic under their new live events division. They announced the inaugural edition will be held in Sunburn's own backyard at Candolim in Goa during the same last week in Dec as Sunburn.

The rivalry between the old-guard (Sunburn) and the new challenger (Supersonic) then took on a legal and political form.

- Percept challenged the use of the land at Candolim stating they had prior agreements with land owners. Owners chose Supersonic, and Sunburn was forced to shift base to Vagator instead, albeit now at a much larger land parcel. Shailendra Singh later said this was a blessing in disguise for Sunburn as they could now expand the scope of the festival with more stages and guest activities/camping.

- Percept later publicly alleged that festival presentation materials and IP had been stolen from Sunburn by Supersonic, and challenged this in Bombay High Court at Goa. The court looked at the evidence and ordered Supersonic to create fresh presentation material without using any prior disputed IP. Viacom18 presented a new proposal to the state permission committee and got the go-ahead for the festival. Percept claimed this as a moral victory in the media while Viacom18 disputed any allegations.

- Both festivals go ahead as originally scheduled in Dec 2013 and had a surprisingly favourable turnout and outcome. Supersonic had a successful inaugural festival while Sunburn grew in scale and scope.

-

Part 5 - Rivalry continues, Sunburn grows even bigger, Supersonic scales up and finds its own voice, and eventually leaving Goa for other pastures:

- In 2014, Supersonic scaled up to include even bigger headliners like Axwell, Above & Beyond, Paul Van Dyk and Infected Mushroom, while Sunburn grew to 6 stages in total with even a live music stage. Shailendra Singh says the rivalry actually helped Sunburn get bigger in turn, and also helped the Goan and Indian dance music scene grow overall.

- At the 2014 festival, an explosive controversy occurred when Shailendra Singh ordered Sunburn performing artist BLOT! (Gaurav Malaker) to leave the festival grounds due to the artist also having earlier attended and wearing a VH1 Supersonic wrist-band. The artist was escorted by security and later recounted his experience in a scathing Facebook note titled "The Politics of Dance and Other Short Stories". The matter blew up on social media due to Singh's abusive language and also drew satirical reactions by Nikhil Chinapa and NH7 Weekender/OML head Vijay Nair on Twitter.

- Both festivals at this point were attractive a massive 200,000 visitors overall, with Sunburn claiming that their internal revenue estimates pointed to a Rs. 485cr economic impact over the course of the entire festival in 2014.

- A 2015 Scroll investigation explored that the rivalry went from being just about business and turned into a political scandal. Allegations were made of corruption and bribery for permissions, unpaid dues and then later becoming a Goa government governance problem about permissions, law & order, security, drug use, and emergency arrangements.

- The same year, NCP/Goa political figure Trajano D'Mello pursued an RTI in the court about unpaid dues by both festivals. The RTI claimed that Sunburn owed approx Rs. 6.29cr, and Supersonic approx Rs. 3.38cr in unpaid dues and taxes, as assessed by the Goa government. Sunburn subsequently filed a defamation suit against D'Mello to the tune of Rs. 50cr.

- In late 2015, then Goa CM Laxmikant Parsekar announced that the state government will not tolerate clashing dates of both festivals especially during the state's religious festival season of late Dec, and suggested they use before Dec 15 2016 or after Jan 15 2017 as tentative dates for their respective festivals.

- In the end due to increasing friction with the Goa state government and their changing stance on music festivals in general, both festivals were eventually forced to leave Goa and head to Pune for the 2016-17 editions, with Sunburn choosing 29-31st Dec in 2016, and Supersonic choosing 10-12th Feb in 2017.

-

Part 6 - Current state of Sunburn and Supersonic in the current era:

In 2019, Sunburn's IP was acquired by BookMyShow's BigTree Entertainment and after 3 relatively successful outings in Pune in 2016-17-18, Sunburn returned to Goa again for 4 years in 2019-22-23-24. The festival's current CEO is Karan Singh, son of Harindra Singh (and nephew of Shailendra Singh), and Sunburn has scaled up the festival to other cities around the world like Colombo (SL), Dubai (UAE) and in Melbourne (AU). Since 2025 Sunburn has shifted base to Mumbai, with the 2026 2-day edition slated to be organized at the famed Mahalaxmi Race Course grounds in December.

Shailendra Singh has recently come out and alleged that Sunburn and its IP was sold by his brother and Percept co-founder Harindra Singh to BMS without his involvement. He has spoken about it at length in podcast interviews like this one here.

VH1 Supersonic meanwhile was rebranded as a multi-genre festival and returned to Pune in 2023 and 2024 after a pandemic break of 3 years. Since VH1 ceased operations in India in 2025, Supersonic wasn't held in the same year and there is currently no news about its future.

Submerge is still somewhat going strong with event and artist management and booking agency work. They continue to organize a multi-artist dance music festival called Satellite Beachside, and also associate with Goa Sunsplash, a reggae themed festival (both organized in Goa).

-

My personal conclusions:

- Percept and Submerge started something new and iconic, but as any business partnerships go they eventually fell apart.

- Shailendra Singh is passionate and outspoken, and Nikhil Chinapa is equally passionate but comparatively measured.

- The fallout between these organizations could have been handled better, especially publicly, but such is the nature of professional and personal relationships.

- Competition between festivals of that scale benefited concert-goers in the end - more artists, more venues, more choices.

- These festivals platformed growing artistic talent in India and also brought down notable artists from abroad which created awareness about the burgeoning Indian dance music scene.

- Goa's local tourism and overall music industry grew by leaps and bounds, but also suffered under mismanagement, corruption and local citizen pressure.

- Sunburn has taken on a different avatar under its current leadership/ownership and has its own merits and flaws (a discussion for another day).

- Supersonic has hit a bit of a rough patch but we can only hope they return someday.

--

Longer post about Nikhil Chinapa's perspective on the entire thing, exit from Sunburn and the founding of VH1 Supersonic.

BLOT!, The Politics Of Dance and Other Short Stories, and being thrown out of a festival as an artist for just for attending a rival's festival

--

All sources:

Submerge's and Nikhil Chinapa's history https://submerge.in/about/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikhil_Chinapa

Founding of Sunburn by Shailendra Singh https://shailendrasingh.me/sunburn-1

Sunburn's history and Nikhil Chinapa's departure https://rollingstoneindia.com/sunburn-and-the-indian-edm-explosion/

https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/nikhil-chinapa-moves-on-from-sunburn-to-a-new-edm-festival/cid/249345

Nikhil's Facebook note about his departure from Sunburn https://www.facebook.com/notes/10159133944694574/

Nikhil's Facebook post recounting how Supersonic came to be https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AoD5vtY14/

Percept alleges IP theft https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/percept-moves-hc-over-copied-edm-presentation/articleshow/26546198.cms?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Drama in public https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/not-so-sunny-in-goa-2/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Sunburn and Supersonic and their big numbers https://www.forbesindia.com/article/recliner/electronic-dance-music-comes-of-age-in-india/36919/1?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Shailendra Singh vs BLOT https://radioandmusic.com/news/b-l-o-t-s-gaurav-malaker-takes-on-sunburns-shailendra-singh-through-social-media/

https://www.thewildcity.com/news/1682-performing-artist-thrown-out-of-sunburn-festival-for-attending-rival-event?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Public spats in media by both parties https://radioandmusic.com/news/shailendra-singh-and-nikhil-chinapa-saga-takes-the-social-route-with-nawed-khan/

Goa governments directive to both festivals https://www.musictimes.com/articles/59883/20151228/goa-india-bans-dance-music-festivals-2016-holiday-season.htm

Tax issues by both festivals https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/provide-details-on-taxes-paid-by-edm-promoters-state-info-panel/articleshow/59935889.cms

Sunburn vs Supersonic: The bitter rivalry between Goa's year-end electronic music gigs https://scroll.in/article/777233/sunburn-vs-supersonic-the-bitter-rivalry-between-goas-year-end-electronic-music-gigs

Sunburn leaving for Pune https://rollingstoneindia.com/shailendra-singh-were-the-shah-rukh-khan-of-dance-music-festivals/

Shailendra Singh on Sunburn's sale https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ4FGK9jhiT/

BigTree Entertainment's purchase of Sunburn musically.com/2025/08/07/indias-biggest-edm-festival-sunburn-is-moving-to-mumbai/

--

https://trancentral.tv/2016/04/goa-90s/

A trip through the time machine to the amazing parties in Goa in the 90s

The 90s are the decade that formed Psychedelic and Goa Trance culture, and while it all happened in many scattered little tribes across  the world, the meeting point for them all and cradle of this culture was Goa.

The small state in India on the shores of the Indian Ocean was a haven for hippies arriving on the hippie trail overland to India since the 70s. Full Moon parties were happening in Goa since 1976, and electronic music started to find its way to these parties in the late 80s.

But it was the 90s that brought the forming of a new culture, with new music, new philosophy and a lot of colours, freedom and dreams of a different world. It was Goa that gave (re)birth to the party as a spiritual individual and tribal journey, with early DJs such as DJ Laurent, Ray Castle, Goa Gil and others weaving long psychedelic journeys of many hours for the dancers on the magical beaches and forests of Goa. It was a sort of DJing that was very far from the DJing we are used to see today, where the DJs were sitting on the side, and the party itself was the focus.

Amazing parties in Goa in the 90s Pictures

Below you can find a series of photos taking you through that decade collected by isratrance.com from around the web.

Check the full isratrance.com album here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDXKEhHs22o

From their Indian tour in 2011 for Invasion Festival (organized by NH7/OML, sponsored by Eristoff and VH1)

https://www.facebook.com/events/2018798148414924/

After 2 successful shows in Bangalore and Delhi, ARTEFACT ASSASSIN finally comes to Mumbai.

Social Offline presents: Artefact Assassin

Artefact Assassin is an immersive audio visual collaboration by AsymetriK, a bold and experimental side-project by Arjun Vagale, and Thiruda (Avinash Kumar).

Cinematic in its vision, the modular concept is spearheaded by AsymetriK. As a celebrated artist from India’s Techno and Electronic movement, Arjun is moving away from conventional premises with this project.

Thiruda is an acclaimed media artist, creative director and curator who works with a network of artists, filmmakers, animators and game developers through creative projects that present an authentic viewpoint of India to the world.

Mumbai is the last one in this first leg of the limited series event.
__________________________________________________________

Lineup:
Audio -
AsymetriK
dotdat
United Machines
Arjun Vagale
Plan B

Visual -
Thiruda
Cursorama

_________________________________________________________

Venue: Famous Studios, Studio 9

https://www.facebook.com/events/623931361379553/

Social Offline presents: Artefact Assassin

Artefact Assassin is an immersive audio visual collaboration by AsymetriK, a bold and experimental side-project by Arjun Vagale, and Thiruda (Avinash Kumar).

Cinematic in its vision, the modular concept is spearheaded by AsymetriK. As a celebrated artist from India’s Techno and Electronic movement, Arjun is moving away from conventional premises with this project.

Thiruda is an acclaimed media artist, creative director and curator who works with a network of artists, filmmakers, animators and game developers through creative projects that present an authentic viewpoint of India to the world.

Artefact Assassin will go on tour for a limited series of events. Delhi edition will see dotdat and A Birth Defect on the lineup.
__________________________________________________________

Lineup:
Audio -
AsymetriK
dotdat
A Birth Defect

Visual -
Thiruda
Cursorama
Aural Eye

_________________________________________________________

Venue: agenc.in, Dhanmill Compound

https://www.facebook.com/events/1959295044376405/

Social Offline x Kitty Ko - Bangalore present: Artefact Assassin
in association w/ Heineken India

Artefact Assassin is an immersive audio visual collaboration by AsymetriK, a bold and experimental side-project by Arjun Vagale, and Thiruda (Avinash Kumar).

Cinematic in its vision, the modular concept is spearheaded by AsymetriK. As a celebrated artist from India’s Techno and Electronic movement, Arjun is moving away from conventional premises with this project.

Thiruda is an acclaimed media artist, creative director and curator who works with a network of artists, filmmakers, animators and game developers through creative projects that present an authentic viewpoint of India to the world.

Artefact Assassin will go on tour for a limited series of events. The Bangalore edition will see support by dotdat and Likwid.
__________________________________________________________

Lineup:
Audio -
AsymetriK
dotdat
Likwid

Visual -
Thiruda
Cursorama
Aural Eye

_________________________________________________________

Venue: Kalinga 2, The Lalit Ashok.

Interview with the band Jalebee Cartel, as part of Smirnoff's web-only featurettes on Indian electronica artists. Produced by Babble Fish Productions, released in 2010.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WmtGkbQtlU

The Glory Days Of Mumbai’s Favourite Nightclub, Fire N Ice

by Mandovi Menon

“There’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” - Vishal Shetty, quoting Victor Hugo.

Commercial-yet-cult. Burlesque-yet-believable. As Mumbai’s most iconic club till date, Fire N’ Ice, threatens to haunt our nightlife with its ghost, one of its creators tells a tale worthy of chronicling. Between revolutionizing the city’s witching hours and creating the cave that holds its most epic dance-floor memories, the man still found the time to drink eight vodka Red Bulls by breakfast. This is a quest to trace a journey that even 10 years post its closing, sparks an interest in every person that weaved their way into its fabric.

I’ve lived through my share of iconic venues. I was around when Zenzi sheltered the pierced, independent rebels and when Blue Frog transformed the landscape of live music performances in this country. Every generation has their own coming-of-age experience and every generation has their regret. Mine was missing out on the Fire N’ Ice experience.

I can’t pinpoint the source of this void through any particular thing the club provided—all I have are stories. I had the misfortune of having to live the FNI hey days vicariously through my sister and her friends who managed to be there every week even while giving their board exams. This usually meant disgruntled door-opening for her (largely) lifeless body being carried in by rotating regulars like some sort of corpse bride. And while all their stories differ in content there’s a serial theme that makes the experience sound so fucking appealing. Rebellion, sweat-on-skin, the kind of community that can’t be planned; Fire N’ Ice changed the way people danced.

Now, given the sudden deluge of social media announcements that promise a gathering of the old FNI troupes at Tote, a reliving of their peak, what happier excuse is there to call upon Vishal Shetty at his undulating Mahalaxmi office? As one of the club’s creators, I have to admit he looks the part. The pitted skin, the sunken eyes, the remarkable alertness are akin to some sort of war veteran. The kind of man who’s seen it all. Too much, even.

I turn on my recorder to gather his thoughts. Between snippets of revolutionary condom machines, full-blown riots and legendary bouncers (read: Samson) it’s endearing to hear how far the boys from Fire N’ Ice have come. They have real jobs now. They have families. They’ve learned to let go. And they’re still marching the streets to their own beat. But perhaps, best of all, they can always bask in the memories of grimier days.

Read on for a fragmented account of their Fire N’ Ice experience:

I. Begin At The Beginning

“As far as partying goes, we only had a couple of options to go to in the ‘90s and most of them sucked.”

One of the places I remember in that landscape was The Nineteens, which was a membership club, so every time you wanted to go there, you’d have to hunt down the members so it was a real mission. Then there was like this fashion bistro which was a small bar everyone would go to just because it was a new place and at that time, anything that was new was awesome because there was barely anything coming up.

Was there longevity? Sure, because nothing new was coming up to compete with them, and definitely nothing substantial. And because there was no internet, people didn’t even know any better. We couldn’t get on Facebook to figure out what was going on to not, whether it was crowded or not crowded. Then came the pager. Thank god for that, at least then we’d come to know, you know, okay don’t come or whatever.

II. We did start the fire

“Why don’t we start a club?”

So yeah…I think that barren nightlife situation…it was pretty much the time we sort of decided at some tea stall near hanging gardens. All 4 of us (Ketan Kadam, Rajeev Shah, Neeraj Rungta & Vishal) just sat down and said…let’s do something. We went and we got a paper and two of our partners were really good at math so we sort of put the numbers out there and it all made sense on paper. It was the four of us because we were partying quite often; but only once a week because that was the norm at that time. Usually, people go to see a place first, do the numbers later but we went the opposite direction because two of the members were like really harboured business guys, so when the numbers made sense we said ‘ok fine, let’s do it.’ One of the great things that I’ll still stand by was that we had the greatest team. If one guy knew the numbers side of it, we had another like Ketan who understood the permissions side of it.

It was a dynamic team with an extremely dynamic idea in our mind and it was at a time where nothing could go wrong! I always say there’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

III. Finding Utopia

“Right before we found our venue, we saw a giant 50 X 70 foot wall right behind it that was completely FILLED with cockroaches. You could hear the buzzing!”

We knew the shit we needed to know. When i’d just gotten out of school, I must have been 14 years old, I used to run a house party DJ providing service where me and these 7 other guys created a group called Ear Damage which would provide sounds, lights and DJs for house parties. We ended up throwing all the Cathedral parties.

At that time, Hussain (Whosane) and Asad (Freeatmah Zaidi) were the only guys who even had Audiophiles to play. Of the seven, one is the director of Sony Music now, the other is my brother-in-law. Anyway, basically we knew the music side of it, we knew the party side of it, we knew what change was required.

And we were very clear on the space we needed for it.

I think from there we took off and just started looking at venues, we must have seen nearly 60-odd venues before we finally got to the last one. We almost closed on the one at Mahalaxmi, under the Mahalaxmi bridge, where they had this big warehouse. I think there’s a car service or something there now. It was under a bridge so no one would know that there’s something actually under the bridge. Anyway, we were about to go there and check it out when someone told us to go to Phoenix Mills and check this place out. So we went. And we saw something that was behind and immediately said no because there was this giant 50x70 feet wall that was filled with cockroaches. When we walked in we could hear this loud buzz but it was dark, so until they put the torch on we couldn’t see the wall…I’m not kidding, it was FULL of cockroaches! We ran out of there…

And just like that, the Lower Parel era was born.

We got so much discouragement about the area. People would say: you can’t go into Lower Parel because it’s industrial. Even the flyovers weren’t there; it was all very hard, dark, edgy. But that’s exactly what we wanted because then we could get away with whatever we wanted to.

IV. Cockroaches bred dance

“I think this is it.”

Two of our guys were like ‘no way do we want a place with energy like this’ and we walked out. That’s when we saw it. It was actually broken down, the roof was off and there was nothing there, but while we were walking out something made us ask ‘is this available?’ We went inside…and it was like..Four of us stood in the centre of this place with no roof and all four of us said, ‘I think this is it.’

V. …And Bombay bred money.

“First three years, everything we touched turned to gold.”

Two of the partners were from successful business families; Neeraj used to run a family business of chemicals and Ketan was from a hospitality background. I was in the jewellery business with Rajeev for about five years where I learned a lot about diamonds and stuff.

Some of us had to borrow on interest and we did it, we ended up going three times over budget. One of the partners used to push really hard to push the envelope, he’d always say we needed to raise the bar. It ended up being really good for business.

Like I said, we were an extremely powerful team. We knew how to manage and we had the first mover’s advantage to do something before anyone else, to pave our own way. You need to innovate, you need to shift things completely; I still love it when I see people doing that. So the first three years, everything was clicking. Everything we were touching was turning to gold.

VI. The Pregnant Pause

”We had a baby.”

In many ways this whole project was very much like a baby. It took nine months to make and deliver. At least we used to look at it that way.

VII. Circle of Life

“We were the first people to install a condom vending machine.”

Fire & Ice gave birth to a lot of things. We had that first mover’s advantage but we still all believe that you have to constantly innovate and challenge yourself. When it came to our nights we had all sorts of crazy programming. We came up with Chandni Bar nights which were a major hit. Yana Gupta actually did a whole Babuji number once. And then Orion Entertainment came to programme a hip-hop night. We were never happy with just one facet, it was about creating an experience so we actually had live rappers like Omar and Kunal take over.

Maroosh actually also started in a way because of the club because we were the only vegetarian club back then. Ketan and I thought it was a good opportunity to start something quick and non-veg around the corner so that’s where that came from. It was just a broken down mill so you could do whatever you wanted! Sometimes we’d go out to Maroosh and put a sound system there, play music while they were eating and some of the people would provide drinks there so waiters would come and serve these kids their drinks and food and they were parked in their cars out there.

One time we thought it would be a great idea to install a condom vending machine in the club and surprisingly it worked! We put it in the men’s loo and convinced KamaSutra to help us out. I think we were all surprised at how well it worked.

Then there were other clubs that tried to imitate, re-create, whatever. Velocity came in, Mikanos also did the same, everyone was hunting for a space that could give that same experience, that high ceiling..they had understood what the necessities for a top club was. Sure, there was a dip in business sometimes but we stood by good music and the brand. By then, we were already a brand and it was bigger than all of us. The only place that opened and really stood out was Athena. But see, they too challenged what was already existing. They created that table system and the lounge model so it was something new, even we used to go and party there!

And that whole mass SMS invite thing? I think that was born with us too. Got tiring to send those 100 messages out a day but we used to do it.

VIII. Shut up & dance

“Screw strategies, there were no strategies. What we created was a culture of dancing.”

Maybe it started well because it had all that media attention. I mean Shahrukh inaugurated the opening night (he was doing Devdas at the time) but none of that was planned as a crowd-pulling gimmick really. It was all too new but honestly, at that time there were no strategies. What we really created was a culture of dancing because today, it’s not about dancing. It’s put your phones up and tape, but there’s no dancing culture as such.

So the thing was, even Shahrukh, he inaugurated the dance floor, not the club. We were very mindful about the importance of the dance floor, where the sound should be. Even when we installed the sound at that time, it was about 30-40 lakh worth of sound back in 1999. We had all sorts of things; we had a laser Pink Floyd used to use, we hired an engineer who had worked on Pink Floyd concerts and stuff like that.

IX. No club for hypocrisy

“We provided everything for everyone.”

Yeah, sure it was considered upmarket at the time because when we started, there were important people who were becoming regulars but not in the way people insinuate . I mean owning a club is every kid’s fantasy. Other industrialist’s kids had tried clubs and failed, so when four guys come and build this massive club, one has never seen anything like it, what do you expect? For us, the reference points were very clear. We wanted something massive, something with intelligent lighting, sound and music. So we were never as a ‘certain’ kind of club because we provided everything for everyone.

There were definitely crazy occasions, like one time this big industrialist came and told me, ‘I want your club. The entire club.’ I told him I couldn’t because it was a Friday night and I couldn’t shut down a new club, so we gave him the full top section till 10 and then after 10 I said let people inside.

Then I remember there was this couple who used to come in an AC cab from The Oberoi because we had a deal going with them and they used to party like crazy. Then I found out that they were Kuwaiti Royalty!

Another time, the entire Indian cricket team was up there and Adnan Sami put the volume down and sang for Sourav Ganguly, so yeah it was crazy!

X. Tune out

“Overall, we were known for our music; we knew we had that right.”

Man, the brand was bigger than all of us. We knew that. I think it had become so big at one point that people just wanted something, anything they could get from us. What we sort of became was the music place and that wasn’t there at that point. “Give me the Fire and Ice music,” people would tell us. There was no radio then; my brother-in-law was the only RJ at the time I think and we became the fastest source to the biggest hits across the globe. So we pushed all the club stuff that wasn’t being released then, not the retro rock shit that had always been there.

There was this one guy BOB, Israeli guy, I don’t even know how we got him to come down because we didn’t even transfer the money beforehand, he came, saw the club and just like that he was like,“let me be your booking agent.” A lot of the Ministry of Sound guys came after that. Everything was always packed. Did a hip-hop night? Packed. Retro night? Packed. Trance night? Packed.

XI. Pricks, Power, Prison.

“It turned into a riot.”

I think a lot of people didn’t like us because we had the hottest club in the country. Things, business was all moving really fast and I guess we hadn’t accepted that shit could turn around very fast too. There was a case that put us in Arthur Road jail for days and 3 nights in 2000 and it only got over last year.

XII. We are family

“We’d take a bullet for each other”

We’ve all seen a lot of shit together. Even when the BMC shut us down (because a building behind FNI fell down), we went all in together. We went all the way to the High Court, Supreme Court in Delhi and had top lawyers fight the case. It took us a month but we retained all our staff. We’d play cricket outside on the holidays and we even took a couple of journeys to Nashik to the church where we’d all go pray together because most of the guys were Christians. We did everything like a family.

XV. This is the end, Of our elaborate plans, The end.

“If the high is that good, then the low has to be that bad.”

Eventually, we decided to shut down because the mill was getting too commercial. Big Bazaar had opened just opposite and it was not the best place to have a club anymore. It was around mid-2003 that we began getting feelers that it’s about to sizzle out.

It was just too close to us because we didn’t know anything else. We were a bunch of 23-24 year-olds, our whole lives had been turned upside down. I left my day job for this. I was doing jewellery around ’96/’97 and just left it all behind. And when it shut down, I didn’t know what to do then. I mean, the lights went off. And when the lights go off, it’s not a good feeling. We did shut on a high as a brand, but internally it was incredibly sad.

Suddenly nobody wanted to know you, nobody wanted to be with you, the hottest club of town was no longer hottest club of town, and anyone who spoke to you didn’t speak to you anymore. You do certain things to stay in the news to when you’re being written about every week, even TIME magazine had done a piece on us once. What I said earlier, applies to us too, you know. If the high is that high, then the low has to be that low too. There’s no other way you have to deal with it.
9 months of planning, 5 years in business. We started on 15th October 1999 and shut on 4th January, 2004. I think 2/3 of our people cried, and more than a few of the regulars. It was really emotional. But you know what? I think we were strong enough. We knew our roots, we knew where we came from. And we did it all.

Originally posted on the Midival Punditz Facebook on 18th Feb 2019

Punditz Chronicles 03 / Some pictures from Cyber Mehfil in 2001. By now, we had a fairly decent turn-out at the Mehfils. We had a bunch of Dj's guesting for us including Jayant, Dale, Arjun Vagale along with the regulars being Punditz & Dj. Joy. The Decor was being done by our friends Aparna Tanya and it was basically white cloth and UV Lights! We had a 2-room setup with 'Red Room' being hard DnB with Indian Classical Vibes and 'Blue Room' being Downtempo & Liquid DnB.

Delhi had entered the International Electronica scene...

Originally posted on the Midival Punditz Facebook on 12th Feb 2019

Punditz Chronicles 01 / Some images from our 1st 'Cyber Mehfil' in 1999. This was Delhi's (and possibly India’s) first Electronica Party. We were spinning mostly Hard DnB and other Dance Electronica.

Our 1st Cyber Mehfil was held at "Scribbles" in South Ex, Delhi. In those days, there was no concept of 'Hosted Parties/Gigs', so we actually collected and paid money to the Venue, to allow us to play our own music (DnB) and call our guestlist.