Paresh Pahuja on his viral song Dooron Dooron, doing Nazdeekiyan: It's surreal to be leading a Karan Johar project

ACtor-singer Paresh Pahuja was to wrap up up his enjoy Notes musical comedy circuit with a public presentation in Mumbai last weekend, but due to unavoidable circumstances, the event had to be postponed indefinitely, While he laments not being able to perform in Mumbai, he still feels thankful for all the love the tour brought him. “It's been magical because there is no logical way of defining how it felt. The kind of exchange of love that I've seen, it's like after a point, everything disappeared. There was no stage or people and it just felt like one big house party or one big room of energy where everybody is just happy to be there. It's a rare feeling, and I want to be able to keep doing this for as long as I can,” he says. Paresh admits that there has been a surge in his audience in the last few years, and he credits that popularity to two projects– his viral song Dooron Dooron and the web series Bandish Bandits. “In an artiste’s life, there are certain moments that define your journey. The first one happened for me quite early with Tiger Zinda Hai. Bandish Bandits happened when my music was also popping up, and it all felt like divine planning. As for Dooron Dooron, it's one of those things that came out of nowhere and changed my life, and that also didn't happen overnight. The original version didn't do anything; we had put it out on all streaming platforms. But when we repackaged it with an unplugged version, people revisited the original version too and rediscovered this song. It no longer feels like my own song as people have given their own meaning to it. It's a beautiful feeling to watch that happen,” he says. It’s not just music but also acting work that is keeping Paresh busy. He has a cameo in the upcoming Lakshya-Ananya Panday-starrer Chand Mera Dil and then he leads the recently announced project Nazdeekiyan, backed by Karan Johar. Working with Karan, as Paresh admits, has been a dream. “It was on my dream list for the longest time as it is what we grew up on, be it Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kal Ho Naa Ho or Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. It’s a surreal feeling to be a leading man in their project and Nazdeekiyan is such a beautifully written script,” he says. While he is getting busier with more music and more acting work coming his way, Paresh is enjoying this chaos. “I love doing both and I love the problem of having date issues. I feel so lucky to have reached this stage. It's a beautiful problem to have, and I don’t want it to go away. I want to be either on the stage or on the set or in a studio at all times,” he ends.