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| Sunny Sarid, who has been synonymous with Ghungroo since 1986, is leading the team working on the reopening of the nightclub at WelcomHotel Dwarka. Image courtesy of http://djsunnysarid.blogspot.com |
By Sourish Bhattacharyya
SUNNY SARID, a
B.Com. student from Chandigarh who used to come to party in Delhi on weekends,
took charge of the DJ’s console at Ghungroo
in the most unusual circumstances in 1986. Bill Bhattacharya, the then DJ of
India’s most happening nightspot at the ITC
Maurya, had not reported for duty and seemed to have disappeared from
mother earth. Ghungroo’s captain, P.K. Mehta, who used to play the same ‘slow
numbers’ for ‘close dances’ between 1:30 and 2 a.m. every night, was in a cold
sweat. So, when he saw Sunny sauntering into the discotheque, he put him on the
job that would define the life of the country’s best-known deejay at a time
when the clubbing culture was in its infancy.
Today, 27 years on, Sunny Sarid is working
overtime to get the rejuvenated Ghungroo up and running for its third life at
the WelcomHotel Dwarka (its second
was as a part of Dublin, Ghungroo’s successor at the ITC Maurya). The
split-level nightclub, which will have a mix of Bollywood and international numbers
belting out of its sound system set up by the UK-based company OHM, will open with a performance by DJ Suketu next week (the formal announcement will be brought to you soon by IRS a.k.a. Indian Restaurant Spy). The
following night will see Sunny Sarid, the man who took the leap of faith and
put Bollywood and Punjabi pop on the nightclub’s playlist at a time when it was considered blasphemy, in action behind the
console designed by Pioneer, the
leading company in the business. The other big features of the new Ghungroo are
the laser displays and colourwash lighting, which will make the walls awash
with changing colours.
The old Ghungroo opened in 1978 with
a woman DJ from UK, who played for eight months and left after passing the
mantle on to Field Marshal K.M. (‘Kim’)
Cariappa’s daughter, Nalini. Bill Bhattacharya took over from Nalini Cariappa around 1981, after she
went to Madikeri, the picture-perfect hill station in Coorg, where the Field
Marshal had built his home named Roshanara in 1944, to be with her father. It
was from Bill that Sunny Sarid picked up the basics of mixing at a time when
DJs were looked upon as oddities — Bill was only too happy to let Sunny play
whenever he wanted to take a break or have a smoke. Last heard, and that was in
1989-90, Bill was a manager heading a couple of McDonald’s stores in the U.K.
It was Sunny Sarid that defined
Ghungroo, which became an essential part of the rites of passage for the
generation of Delhiites now in its late 40s and early 50s. Unsurprisingly,
there was an outpouring of nostalgia when Ghungroo shut down in 2001 with a who’s
who party at Kamal Mahal, ITC Maurya’s banquet hall, which I still remember for
the dazzling display of lasers accompanying Sunny’s music. The dress code was ‘Bohemian’
and Delhi’s A-List made it a point to show up in it that night.
It’s impossible to imagine Ghungroo
without Sunny Sarid. As he told me nostalgically, “Anywhere in the world, from
Toronto to Hong Kong, and most recently on a bus in Turkey, I invariably bump
into someone who recognises me from Ghungroo.” Will Ghungroo ever be able to
relive those glory days? Clubbing action, Sunny said, has moved to neighbourhoods
today because people have become careful about not driving home from distant
discotheques after imbibing alcohol. The new Ghungroo may not get back the old
crowd, but it certainly promises to be West Delhi’s hippest hangout zone — an aspirational
watering hole for trendy youngsters with the spending power to live their
dream.
For more details, send an email to RICHA.SHARMA@itchotels.in
For more details, send an email to RICHA.SHARMA@itchotels.in
