Uncapping the Craze

Once dismissed composer-singer Himesh Reshammiya is back — and now, the irony has turned into affection. A deep dive into his surprising cultural renaissance

- By Zico Ghosh

A couple of months ago, I went down a Himesh Reshammiya rabbit hole.

The trigger? A video by Yashraj Mukhate — the YouTube creator known for viral music riffs — performing a 15-minute medley of Reshammiya’s songs most people didn’t even realise he’d composed. The video serves as a reminder of just how prolific the singer-composer has been, and how many of his tunes have lodged themselves in our popular imagination. These aren’t tracks critics typically cite when discussing the best music of the 2000s. Yet when we hear them now, in 2025, they hit like dopamine shots we didn’t know we needed.

The frenzy around his CapMania tour this year confirms what’s been building quietly for a while: Reshammiya is having a full-blown resurgence. His social media currency has been steadily rising. He’s become a meme, the subject of affectionate online irony, with Instagram pages like “Himesh Doing Things” chronicling well, Himesh doing things. Earlier this year, he starred in Badass Ravikumar, playing a spoofy version of his own persona — proof that he’s in on the joke and still very much in the game.

All of which makes this the perfect moment to talk about Reshammiya the composer — what he originally was, and what he excelled at. Because before the memes and the movies and the trademark caps, there was the music — and it was everywhere.

TO CAP IT OFF