Singer and rapper Parmish Verma is getting accolades for his acting in the recently released JioHotstar web series Kanneda. He speaks to us about his role in the show and his career as a whole.
Parmish Verma on bagging Kanneda, “After years of carving my own path, I finally had a chance to bring my performance to a much larger audience”
Parmish, I have to confess I had not heard of you before Kanneda. Where does this implosive performance come from?
Thank you. I completely understand that not everyone across the country may have been familiar with my work before Kanneda and that’s the reality of being an artist. You keep creating, knowing that your reach might be limited to a certain audience. I’ve been working in this industry for over a decade, doing theatre, directing, writing, and acting in Punjabi films but the opportunity to showcase my craft on a national scale never really came my way. Most of the films I worked on were either my own productions or projects I had written myself because I was so passionate about storytelling and filmmaking.
The series Kanneda has got you unprecedented fame
When Kanneda came along, it was the first time I felt like I was truly being seen. Someone outside my immediate creative space recognized my potential and placed their trust in me. That was incredibly powerful. I approached this role with everything I had because after years of carving my own path, I finally had a chance to bring my performance to a much larger audience. So, the intensity you see on screen comes from that hunger, that long wait for a moment like this. And when it arrived, I made sure I didn’t hold anything back.
You play an unhappy musician in Kanneda. As a musician in Punjab, have you faced discrimination and abuse?
Unfortunately, no matter where you go in the world, discrimination and abuse exist. It comes from fear, fear of the unknown, fear of differences. My journey has been long and full of challenges but with time I’ve grown as a person and come to understand that these reactions are often rooted in ignorance rather than malice. We live in an unkind world and you can’t always change people’s perceptions overnight.
It isn’t always that bad
I cannot ignore the immense love, growth, and opportunities that this industry has given me. The very reason I am standing on a national platform today is because of the unwavering support of my audience, the people who believed in me long before anyone else did. If there were those who doubted me, there were also those who lifted me up, who showed up for my films, my music, and my vision. And that’s what I choose to hold onto. In the end it’s not the resistance that defines you but the people who stand by you, despite it.
How much of this performance comes from a personal space?
I moved to Australia at a very young age and that was my first real encounter with discrimination and abuse. At that time being young I took everything personally. But as I grew older and stepped into the world as an artist, I began to see the bigger picture. I came to understand that these dynamics exist everywhere just in different forms. In the entertainment industry there are pressures, whether from the underworld, law enforcement, or political influences. The faces may change but the rules remain the same. It’s the law of the jungle and survival depends on understanding those unspoken rules rather than resisting them outright.
How much did you draw from your experience to play the singer?
Much of Nimma’s journey in Kanneda before he reaches that pivotal moment of choosing a specific path is drawn from my own personal experiences. That frustration, that helplessness, that acceptance of how the world operates, it all comes from what I’ve lived. But after Nimma makes his choice that’s where my training as an actor took over. That’s where my director Chandan Arora became instrumental in guiding me. The moment Nimma picks up the gun, the performance shifts. It’s no longer just my personal learning, it’s the character’s reality.
How did you land the central role of Nirmal?
More than hard work, it was patience. For ten years I’ve been moving step by step, honing my craft, growing as an actor, and waiting for the right opportunity. Over the past few years I’ve received multiple calls and audition requests from Hindi filmmakers but the roles offered were just extensions of my on screen persona. That was never what I wanted. Acting is my passion, my calling. I wasn’t willing to settle for anything that didn’t push me forward as an artist. When I got this audition, I wasn’t even told it was for the central role. I took it on purely because the material was compelling. I gave it my all and the rest was patience and God’s grace. Even today, I get offers for films and shows but I know that many of them won’t leave a lasting impact. I refuse to work just for the sake of working. My only goal now is to create something meaningful, work that will outlive me, that I can look back on with pride.
How closely did you work with director Chandan Arora to create this anguished character in Kanneda?
Without Chandan Arora, I wouldn’t have been able to bring Nimma to life the way I did. His approach was never about dictating how I should act. Instead, he would guide me by helping me understand exactly what my character was thinking at that moment. As an actor, you can bring all your talent, all your variations, and every ounce of your craft to the table but ultimately it is the director who knows how to refine it. Acting isn’t just about expression, it’s about precision. And Chandan Arora knew exactly how to push me to the right degree, how to fine tune my performance, so that Nimma didn’t just feel real, he felt lived. So if Nimma resonates with people, a large part of that credit goes to my director. He made sure the audience truly saw Nimma.
Did being a musician make it easier for you to play Nirmal?
I wouldn’t say being a musician made it easier but it definitely helped me enhance Nimma. Rap has become second nature to me and since a lot of our soundscape in Kanneda is hip hop driven, that element added an entirely new dimension. Understanding rap, rhythm, and the depth of lyrical writing allowed us to shape Nimma beyond just visual storytelling. Even in moments where you don’t explicitly see what’s running through his mind, the lyrics help dictate his internal struggle, his emotional state, and how far he’s willing to go. That said, I was very conscious of not letting my musical persona bleed into Nimma. My goal was to use my musical sensibilities as a tool to enhance the performance, not to impose my artistic essence onto him. Nimma had to exist in his own space. I just used my skills to make him feel more alive.
Where do you go from here?
Where do I go from here? I think I go where the next script takes me, the next story that gives me the space to truly perform. Playing Nimma was an incredibly fulfilling experience because he wasn’t just a character; he was a full spectrum of emotions, a complete 360-degree journey of love, ambition, despair, and survival. As an actor, that’s the kind of role you dream of one that allows you to pour yourself into every layer of the character. Hearing from someone like you that my portrayal of a migrant’s dream resonated so deeply is a huge compliment. Thank you for that.
In many ways, I relate to Nimma’s drive. Just like he longed to move to a new country to prove himself, I had a similar fire within me when I returned from Australia in 2014 to chase my dream of becoming an actor. It took me ten long years to be seen on a national level, to find a role that truly allowed me to showcase my abilities beyond the image people had of me. So, moving forward, my goal is simple – I want to work on scripts that challenge me, that demand something raw and real from me. I don’t want to just exist in films; I want to live through them. Wherever I go next, it has to be somewhere that fuels my passion the way Kanneda did.
Are you keen on being a musician or an actor?
Shockingly, you’re the first person to ask whether I see myself more as a musician or an actor. It’s an interesting question because, while the world might see me as both, my journey has always had a deeper contrast one path was created by me, and the other was the one I’ve been waiting to walk fully. When I came to India ten years ago, I came to be an actor. My entire life, my learning, my growth was shaped by theatre and the pursuit of acting. I started as an extra, worked my way up to characters with a few dialogues, and dedicated myself completely to the craft. But in today’s world, you can’t just wait for space to be given to you, you have to create it yourself. And so, music became that creation.
Over the past decade, I’ve built my own platform, my own audience, and an ideology that defines who I am as an artist. Music gave me everything – national and international success, a connection with millions of people, and the ability to sustain myself as an artist. I celebrate that. I cherish it. But acting? Acting is who I am. And in many ways, that part of me remains incomplete. Not because I haven’t worked hard enough, but because, for the longest time, the platform to truly perform as an actor never came my way.
And I’ve made peace with that. Life doesn’t always give you everything, and maybe it’s not meant to. That’s why I choose my acting projects very carefully. I give myself the space as an actor that I never had as a musician. Music safeguards me, keeps my home running, keeps my fans connected to me. I love it, and my soul finds its rhythm there. But my heart? My heart will always belong to acting. That’s where I feel most alive.
Also Read: Amit Mishra on singing ‘Sikandar Naache’, “Always an honor to collaborate with Salman Khan”
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