Vishal Mishra on New Album ‘Pagalpan’: ‘Most Personal Expression of My Life’
The pop artist’s 16-track full-length project brings in voices from Spain, Portugal and more
Vishal Mishra. Photo: T-Series
On Jan. 30, 2026, singer-composer Vishal Mishra released a fiery new song called “Kya Bataun Tujhe,” the first single from his upcoming album Pagalpan.
While the song’s thematic concerns – lyrically and in the music video – were playing to Mishra’s strength as a pained, imperfect and heartbroken lover, the four-and-a-half-minute song goes from piano ballad to skittering trap beats and searing guitar solos over sublime vocals.
Created with producer Vaibhav Pani and releasing via T-Series on Feb. 12, 2026, Pagalpan is likely Mishra’s shot at national and global stardom for his own music, beyond film songs like “Pehle Bhi Main” from Animal and “Tum Ho Toh” from Saiyaara. The 16-track album has been two and a half years in the making, with Mishra likening the process to an emotional state he “lived in” for that duration.
He tells Rolling Stone India, “This album is the most personal expression of my life, yet it speaks a language that belongs to every human being. It comes from a kind of chaos that is so universal it needed musicians, writers, engineers, and producers from across the world to exist honestly.”
International voices on Pagalpan include Portuguese artist Maro on “Bekhabar,” Spanish singer María José Llergo on “Khayalo Se Aage” and Spanish artists Judit Neddermann and Ferran Savall on “Koi Nahi Hai” and another Spanish pop artist, Vernat, on “Roya.”
Mishra says, “This is the first time I’ve opened my inner world to a truly multicultural expression. Artists from different countries, cultures, and emotional histories came together to express the same vulnerability. Through this process, I realized that pain, longing, loneliness, and hope don’t change with geography. Vulnerability sounds the same everywhere in the world.”
The album also features powerful female voices adding perspective, including the title track featuring Reet Talwar, Kashmiri singer-songwriter Duha Shah on “Jeene Ki Wajah” and fellow pop artist Hansika Pareek “Koi Nahi Hai (Hindi).”
The artist says, “Every song is meant to be a companion for nights when you have no one to talk to, moments when you feel unseen, and times when you’re quietly holding yourself together. If Pagalpan can sit beside someone in their loneliest moments and make them feel even a little less alone, then it has already done what it was meant to do.”
