Sehban Azim on Karan Paranjape: He was fit, happy, doing well; can’t believe he is no more

Actor Karan Paranjape died recently in a shocking turn of events. Actor Sehban Azim, his co-star on the show Dill Mill Gaye, remembers the man they playfully called ‘Jigs’ as a content and healthy person.

The sudden demise of Dill Mill Gaye actor and TV producer Karan Paranjape has left his friends and family in shock. The 30-year-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 co-star in Dill Mill Gaye, says that no one had an inkling this might ever happen to someone as fit and jovial as Karan.

Actor Sehban Azim remembers his late friend, actor-TV producer Karan Paranjpe, as a hard-working and talented individual.

“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 hard-working and [actor Karan] Wahi also spoke to his cousin and was told he had no severe ailment,” says Sehban.

Karan Paranjape suffered a heart attack last Sunday. His body was found by his mother.

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 the role of a Gujarati boy, Jignesh.”

Talking about Karan Paranjape’s general 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 and the manager of a company.”

Sehban Azmi (centre) with co-stars Neha Jhulka and the late Karan Paranjpe from the show Dill Mill Gaye.

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. What we often think is that if someone is unwell, we must take care of him or her, but never do the same with those who’re healthy. But what we don’t understand is that life is so unpredictable that anything can happen to anyone anytime. Karan has gone too early. He was the only child and had lost his father. I don’t know how his mother is going to deal with so much alone,” Sehban says sadly. After this wake-up call, he’s planning to meet with some old friends whom he hadn’t met recently, he adds.

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