The Coolest Place: Gaurav, Shruti & Kamal on Their Channel V Days

The hugely popular former VJs share some incredible memories of working with Channel V.

We woke up to the news of Channel V shutting down and being the 80s kid that I am, my heart sank. I thought about all those cool music shows and even cooler VJs, who stopped existing post 90s as music channels started playing TV shows.

The Quint caught up with a few of our favourite Channel V VJs, who shared some of their fondest memories of the channel with us.

Gaurav Kapur

VJ Gaurav was one guy other than Purab we girls used to crush on. But I couldn’t believe when he said it has been more than a decade since he left Channel V.

“It's been over a decade since I left Chanel V, but I think it will always be a part of my system because it was such an important part of my creative education. I think at the time when we came in, Channel V was supremely cool. I think a lot of us were brought into just a sort of connect a little more with the Indian youth. We were sort of the kids next door.”

Reliving his old memories, Gaurav shares how the work culture there was and how people were open to experiment with new ideas.

“A lot of the comedy sketches that you see today were done by some of the producers back then. It was so amazing because our bosses, our creative directors would just say ‘Ok, so what do you guys want to do?’ It was totally democratic. As 20-year-olds, we could say we want to do this and they would totally back us and help us, guide us to go out and do the stuff.”

Gaurav Kapur, Ex-Channel V Vj

He talks about how the office was also their favourite hangout.

“We had this lakrawala bungalow in Khar, which had a big auto rickshaw on it and it was the Channel V studio. It had half an auto rickshaw glued to the front of the building, it had a dance floor there, it had a cold drink-vending machine. So for us kids you know, we were living alone in Mumbai and we would always end up hanging around in the office. We were all friends and it was so much fun. We would show up on days we didn't even have shoots and suddenly people just put us on stuff. 'I am doing a show, why don't you jump in' and we would just jump into each other’s shows. It really was a party.”

“It was a time where we could just experiment as much as we wanted on television. It’s really sad to watch that go. But honestly, the light may have been turned off today but I think even in the last few years... Channel V had not been that same channel you know. It moved away to be something else. But it was such a glorious time for us and we were so lucky to be at the right place at the right time.”

Shruti Seth

“It was my dream to become a VJ myself and its strange that how finally it did work out and I managed to get my gig at channel V,” reminisces Shruti Seth.

“I met the most fun people doing the most fun things and it was pretty cool back then and I think music was a big part our lives... the way it was during the music television days and it is really sad that it has changed so drastically now but we had a great time. I got to interview pretty much anyone and everyone who was famous or doing anything that was important. I still remember I managed to interview Omar Abdullah and I still have my handwritten note from him saying that if and when he does become the Prime Minister of the country, I will be the first one he will give his interview to. I still have it written down.”

Shruti Seth, Ex-Channel V Vj

Not to mention when she interviewed Bryan Adams!

“So it’s probably the most fun job I have done in my career so far. I made some great friends, some people who were really, really cool and still are… very different from the current crop of cool. Then we had no social media yet we managed to make a tiny little dent in the universe and I am glad I had the chance. I feel really bad that it’s shutting down.”

Kamal Sidhu

Kamal Sidhu was one of the VJs who actually saw Channel V getting launched. She told us about the roof top party which was organised for the launch.

“Channel V came as a surprise and is gone as a surprise. When it first launched, it truly came out of no where. MTV had a three-year contract with Star TV after which they decided to autonomise. As talent on the channel, we were the last to find out. Once it came, it blew everyone away. Channel V came to fill the void and it was put together quite quickly and on the spot. Most of the same team that had been working on MTV stayed back and launched Channel V.”

“If there is anything that I remember the most, it’s the actual launch. There was this rooftop event and there were people from all over the world. They presented the V and turned on the light switch and at that moment whatever was MTV on screen switched to Channel V. So when you are telling me now that this (V shutting down) has happened, the first thing I thought about was the night of the launch.”

Time to bid goodbye to Channel V indeed!

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