r/ConcertsIndia_

Looks like they are coming to lolla and not rhcp

How is the Rock and Metal scene in Bangalore these days? This lineup honestly looks incredible, probably one of the strongest lineups South Asia has seen in years.

I haven’t lived in India for a long time now, but I still remember the days of attending Freedom Jam and Strawberry Fields at NLS. Curious to know how the scene has evolved since then, it looks great from the outside.

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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

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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/

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VH1 Supersonic - Every festival lineup poster 2013-2024

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.

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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.

Sunburn Festival - Every festival lineup poster 2007-2025