What goes around comes around. When Tanzeel Khan had made a song and recorded a video in early 2020, intending it as a simple gift for a friend, little did he realise that the sweet gesture would kick-start his career as a musician. Khan had already gained a fair amount of popularity as a content creator by then (his Instagram page has over 8.4 lakh followers at present). But being a musician hadn’t been on his radar, until his friend told him that he should post the song he’d written for her on YouTube. The Mumbaikar did so, and flew off to the Maldives for a two-week long vacation, forgetting all about the track. But he was astonished to find upon his return that the video had garnered a massive amount of hits despite it being a DIY, guerilla kind of effort. That’s when he figured that music could well be an alternative career option for him.

But he’d been writing poetry ever since he was eight years old. Now almost 21, he tells us, “In school, when people talked about musical talent, I felt as if I had it but couldn’t express it. I did realise that I could write poetry well, though. I thought I’d become a lyricist, and then when the song I’d made for my friend did well, it motivated me to become a musician.”