Pix : AMAAR ABBAS

The biggest turning point of my life was landing the job of a VJ with MTV when I was just 18 years old. In 1999, my friend and I went to audition for MTV’s VJ Hunt in Delhi and I made it. There’s been no looking back since.

That year I started co-hosting a daily show called Chill Out with Nikhil Chinappa. It involved a lot of travelling and meeting people and I enjoyed that a lot. A very significant point in my life was when I started hosting MTV Fully Faltu in 2001, in which I did spoofs of celebrities, advertisements and films. I realised that veejaying was not only about being myself, I could also play other characters, which was a lot more enjoyable and challenging.

After a year, I started co-hosting MTV 123 along with Cyrus Broacha. However, I was often compared to him, which irritated me a lot as he was more experienced. At this time the concept of spoof shows was gaining popularity in India and this led me to anchor various other shows like Cyrus vs Cyrus, Rendezvous with Semi Girebal and Piddhu the Great. The shows became hugely popular and I enjoyed playing every one of those characters.

Soon afterwards, I started hosting a Japanese game show called Hole in the Wall on Pogo channel. This was a significant turn in my career as it gave me a considerable fan following among kids, which I never had before. I also started hosting MTV Kickass Mornings where I played 32 different characters. Each show has been a milestone for me as it has led to cameo roles in movies including Rang de Basanti and Delhi 6.

I’ve now decided to introduce a new genre of comedy on MTV — on the lines of a ‘mockumentary’ or mock documentary. I am also shooting for the movie Aisha starring Abhay Deol and Sonam Kapoor. I believe in trying my hand at different things as I feel that a person should do what he or she wants to do rather than what is expected of them.