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As Euphoria marks its return with Dhoomsday, Dr Palash Sen reflects on the songs that defined a generation, balancing life as a doctor and musician, and why staying true matters more than chasing trends

The title is impossible to miss. Nearly 28 years after Dhoom Pichak Dhoom became the soundtrack of every college festival, every farewell party and countless road trips, Euphoria is back with an album called Dhoomsday. It is an unmistakable nod to the song that changed the course of Indian independent music, but also a reminder that Dr Palash Sen, 60, has no intention of becoming a nostalgia act. The new album, featuring nine collaborations across languages and musical traditions — including a recreated duet with the late KK — is less a reunion with the past than a continuation of a journey that began in 1998. "Every song is talking about stuff that I think we all must be worried about, or concerned about, or expressing," Sen says. "I'm still trying to do the same thing that I did 27 years ago."

Ironically, the man behind one of India's biggest youth anthems never imagined he was writing one. "Not at all," he laughs, when asked if he knew Dhoom Pichak Dhoom would become generational shorthand for youthful abandon. "Even now, in 2026, I don't write any song thinking, 'Will it work? Will it become an anthem?' These are surprises that life has given me, the universe has given me. I just made a song."

There was only one moment when instinct kicked in. "When I saw the first frame of the video, I knew we'd made something that would last forever."

Success, however, has always come with a lingering regret. "It's a little heartbreaking that besides the music videos, people don't really listen to the rest of the songs on the albums. We've worked so hard on all of them."