Nikhil Chinappa and DJ Pearl mixing it up at BED on Friday night; (below) a party in progress to celebrate the nightclub completing 100 days. Pictures by Rashbehari Das

Girls drool over his biceps, boys copy his cool dude act and almost everyone loves his sense of humour. Video jockeying is his passion, acting happened by chance and he has taken to disc jockeying because he did not want to dance to other people’s tunes. He belongs to a breed that made fast-talking fashionable and gave the urban youth an out-of-the-box career option.

Nikhil Chinappa is a bit of everything. He has done this, that and the other, but in the seeming madness lies the method. “I have only grabbed the opportunities which came my way. If I had pre-conceived notions about my life, I would have not been able to spot the opportunities. I never plan my life,” claims the flamboyant video jockey, in the city to play at BED (Bar, Entertainment and Dining) on Ballygunge Circular Road when it completed 100 days on Friday.

The gift of the gab is something he has had forever, often landing him in a spot. “People would say one thing to me and I would say three. They would gang up and I would be running to save my life,” recounts Nikhil.

The spark and the spontaneity made him the most successful emcee in Bangalore. And then, MTV happened. “I wasn’t a looker and I did not even have a great body. It was my sense of humour which saw me through all the grilling,” he says.

Once on board, Nikhil ruled the airwaves along with co-VJ Cyrus Broacha. “MTV was in its infancy in India and the concept of a video jockey was alien to the people. When they saw a few individuals talking non-stop, they sat up and took note,” he explains.

Nikhil has also tried his hand at acting in movies like Snip. But success has eluded him on the big screen.

“I am always game to do anything I have not done before. Even today, if I get a role which stimulates my grey cells, I would not bat an eyelid before doing it,” he declares.

But it is his craft behind the console that keeps him in news. The video jockey has even evolved a new genre of music called Submerge ? it’s nothing but house music with a difference, says the creator. “The house music being played in the discos was on the decline. I, along with a handful of friends, decided to do our own stuff. I paired up with DJ Pearl (his lady love for the past five years) and that is how Submerge evolved,” says the popular VJ-cum-DJ.

l this is for now. In the long run, Nikhil has big radio plans, but not as radio jockey. “I want to create an equivalent of MTV on the radio,” he declares.