Sehban Azim on Karan Paranjape: He was fit, happy, doing well at work

The sudden demise of Dill Mill Gaye actor and TV producer Karan Paranjape has left his friends and family in shock. The 30year-old suffered a heart attack on Sunday; his body was found by his mother at his Mumbai residence. Actor Sehban Azim, a close friend of Karan Paranjape and his costar in Dill Mill Gaye, says that no one had an inkling this might ever happen to someone as fit and jovial as Karan.

“We’re yet to come to terms with the news. He was a very happy individual and was doing well professionally, too. I don’t remember him getting annoyed about anything. Karan was very hardworking, and [actor Karan] Wahi also spoke to his cousin and was told he had no severe ailment,” says Sehban. Reminiscing about their days of working on Dill Mill Gaye together, Sehban says, “There were three Karans on the show — Karan Paranjape, Karan Wahi, and Karan Singh Grover.

So we used to call him Jiggy/Jigs; it was the short form of his character’s name from the show. He played a Gujarati boy, Jignesh.”

Talking about Karan Paranjape’s disposition, Sehban says, “Jigs was a good actor, but he didn’t have acting dreams. He learnt filmmaking and writing and was assisting Palki Malhotra (show creator), when she asked him to do Jignesh’s character — and he performed brilliantly. Then he did another Marathi show, before turning TV producer.”

Sehban adds he was in touch with the late actor through phone calls and messages, but didn’t get the time to meet him recently. “The sad part is that we all get so busy with our lives that we miss out on life and meeting our old friends and relatives. I wish we all had taken out the time and caught up sometime. We don’t understand is that life is so unpredictable that anything can happen to anyone anytime.”

Sehban Azim talks about the late Karan Paranjape (inset)