00:00Hi, I'm Rani Jana and today I'm with Prashant Verma. For our audience joining in, Prashant
00:06is an actor, singer and formerly a fashion designer. But today he's joining us because
00:13of his new song release, which is called I'll Find a Way.
00:30Many people might already know, but Outlook has done two issues on mental health. We did
00:37one in August 2025, which was freedom from the stigma of mental health illness. And the
00:43second one around October, when it is the World Mental Health Day. So we'll talk about
00:49the song, which also has a lot to do with processing trauma in, if I may say, unhealthily ways at
00:57times, if you see it like that. So thank you so much for joining us and congratulations
01:02on your new single. Thank you so much for having me here.
01:05So I'll start with the title of the song, which is called I'll Find a Way. Even before somebody
01:12clicks play, there is a message there, right? Like I'll find a way. It's like a motivation.
01:18It's hopeful. So how did you come up with the title and what was the inspiration?
01:23I feel like the title came first in this piece. It's almost like a mix of a torch song and
01:29a battle cry at the same time. Because like you said, the minute you read that phrase or
01:35that sentence, it's almost like a chant in your mind, no matter what, whether you're finding
01:41it as a song or you just come across it as a thumbnail somewhere. It's a statement that I feel
01:48almost everyone has made at some point in their lives. And it's like a resolution.
01:53Absolutely.
01:54You know, when I, in fact, like when I wrote this song, I was unaware of what it would end
02:02up being about. The thing about life or destiny is that it throws things at you, which you never
02:09knew would be your life story. Also, I feel somewhere in the song, in the process of writing it, interestingly,
02:18the song actually has two parts. The first is when it runs with the chant, I'll find a way.
02:27And then it changes to we find a way.
02:30So why that shift from I'll to we, like at what point does it become not just your, you
02:38know, personal challenge, but something that your community and other people around you can
02:44also support you with, you know, the same thing we have issues with, like when we speak
02:50of mental health, right? Like there's so much isolation when it comes to if someone is dealing
02:54with something, a lot of people have this tendency of isolating, right? They try to move away from
03:00their friends, they don't want to meet up, they don't want to reach out, right? And then suddenly
03:04you realize you sit down with your friends and you discuss the issue or problem. And it doesn't
03:09seem as big as it was, you know, in your head. So how did you think of that transition?
03:16History is one of the greatest evidence that you have of people making it through. When it was a
03:27personal point, the words are, I'll find a way. But when it comes to the larger talking of history,
03:35history, it's not we'll find a way, it's we find a way. There's an absoluteness to it that like,
03:42history will affirm that in moments of challenge, people did march on. The two verses that I feel
03:50that sort of, since you spoke of mental health, at the center of the song, the one most biographical
03:56part is, I fetishized success, I objectified myself, and that which couldn't kill me, left me longing for more
04:06violence, I'll find a way. And then the verse that talks about the world at large is, all these days,
04:15all this pain, each one tries, each one dies, but we find a way. Love's not always the answer,
04:25but we find a way. And I feel like, you know, like you said, you have friends, you have family,
04:32you have heroes. There are people we've never met in our lives, living or gone, whose stories help you
04:40even determine what the goal of your life is, what you want to do, how you process. You look at stories,
04:46you look at real life incidents, how people dealt with trauma in the past, and you try those things
04:53out, you see if it works for you, if it doesn't, you move on to the other. What's important is you reach out.
04:59You transitioned your career from a fashion designer to music, which I've already mentioned to the
05:07audience. So I would like to circle back to that since we have spoken so much about human behavior
05:13and artistic expression. So how did that transition come about? When I started off my career as a fashion
05:21designer, the people whose work really sort of not just inspired me, but like I said before, I looked at
05:28their work and I was like, yeah, that that's what I want to do with my life, were very larger than life
05:35and artistically brave designers. I had the great privilege of having to intern under them when I
05:44was young. Both Alexander McQueen and John Galliano are designers who sort of worked at creating an entire
05:52visual universe. Not just visual, actually sonic and experiential. So when I stepped into fashion,
06:00the gold standard in my head was everything has to be brilliant. You have to be great at making clothes,
06:08prints, embroideries, accessories, shows, writing, music, imagery. And I did that and slowly realized,
06:20wait a second, this is what I might have actually admired when I was even looking at other artists
06:26or other mediums before. When I started showing at Fashion Week, my shows were sort of this strange
06:33amalgamation of clothes and performance. Fashion was at the center and all the other art forms were
06:42around it to help tell the story. And eventually it came to a point where I sort of exhausted my life
06:50experience of what I had to tell in that moment and stepped back to gather more. And it was a clear
06:57indicator that maybe the medium also needs to change. I didn't do it intentionally, it just so happened,
07:04you know. That as I progressed from one show to the next, the imagery that was being done for
07:12campaigns and still photographs turned into short films and then moved into live performances. And
07:21acting and performance was something I'd been interested in my whole life, even in high school,
07:26because I had the great opportunity of working with Barry John as a director when I was younger.
07:31And then I moved on from fashion to start dabbling in other mediums. I started studying acting,
07:39I started studying music. You know, one thing leads to another. You move cities. I moved from here to
07:43Bombay. I spent time in New York. And film, music, musical theater, fashion, pop culture, they are very
07:54different mediums, yes. But at the end of the day, they're also, like what we were discussing, they're so
08:00intrinsically linked to how we exist as human beings. And clothes become your appearance, music
08:10becomes a soundtrack to your existence. They're very different. How I moved from one to the next was
08:17slightly organic. It just, you know, destiny is destiny. I'll come to the music videos, which many have
08:24regarded as provocative because of a deep exploration of gender and sexual expression in those videos and
08:34visuals. So how do you take that, the provocative part? Like, I've sort of heard this word provocative
08:40being thrown around about my work from day one. It is what it is. I don't get to control the nature of
08:48the beast I've been handed. Don't get me wrong. There are times that when I come up with an idea, I feel,
08:54oh God, this could get me in trouble. That's because it is uncomfortable. That's because it is difficult.
09:01And there's nothing new unless it's uncomfortable. There's nothing new unless, and I don't mean this in terms
09:08of like, just provoking people by giving them something to shock them. Just if it's uncomfortable for you to do as well,
09:17it is going to teach you so much. It's going to make you braver. It's going to give you more evidence in life
09:22that you took big steps and inspire you, or let's say, keep you motivated to keep
09:28upping your game as you evolve as an artist or even as a human being. You know, everybody has to take certain
09:35difficult decisions in life, whether it is taking a career that you want, which may or may not align
09:42with what people around you expect or encourage. Brave, difficult steps that anyone takes in their lives
09:52in any aspect can inspire others to do the same in any field, you know. So I feel if I start pulling
10:02back on being a certain kind of artist in my work, I fear that the same pulling back would start happening
10:11on me as a human being. And that would not be right. We should live in a world where we can
10:19do our best work, give our best love, share our best selves. And for that, you can't hold back and live,
10:29you know. Do you have anything specific for the audience in mind while you made this song or?
10:36That's an interesting question. I'm at a loss of words suddenly because like, I feel like having
10:43ambition and being able to serve as an artist, we're mutually exclusive. But in the world we live in,
10:51unfortunately, reality is not that way. You have to have clear goals with where you want your life to go,
10:59where you want your career to go, how much and how fast. So yeah, I hope at one side,
11:06deep inside that the song reaches a larger number of people, resonates with a lot of people,
11:13and helps a lot of people. But also, artistically, I do know that like, when you create work,
11:20your responsibility is to just, like I said, tell the truth and put it out there. After that,
11:25what happens with it, who it impacts is not in my control. Because strangely, the song, you know,
11:35came to me, and came through me. So in a way, I can't control the song's destiny.
11:42You know, yeah, so if my job was to work hard and hone my skill set so that I could express
11:54this message to the best of my abilities. Before we end this interview, is it okay if I ask you to maybe
12:02sing like two lines from your new song? Sure, I can give it a shot because we both know the current AQI,
12:12is it very conducive? But yeah, let's try.
12:17All these days, all this pain, each one tries, each one dies, but we find a way,
12:34we find a way, we find a way, we find a way, we find a way. Love's not always the answer,
12:54but I'll find a way, but I'll find a way, I'll find a way, I'll find a way.
13:14Thank you so much. Thank you. That was really nice. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Of course.
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