Himesh Reshammiya’s £5.2M album that beat AR Rahman, Diljit Dosanjh and Sonu Nigam

This is the story of an album that stands above the rest, that sold a staggering 5.5 crore copies, and of a record that remains untouched for nearly two decades.

The Indian music industry witnessed an era of booming album sales in the 1990s and early 2000s, fuelled by film soundtracks and the rising popularity of Indipop. As music labels flourished, selling a million copies became common, and a few even touched the elusive 10-million mark.

However, the landscape changed with the arrival of streaming platforms, altering the definition of success in music. Yet, before digital consumption took over, an unexpected name set a record that remains unbeaten to this day. A composer who never planned to be a singer ended up creating India’s highest-selling album, leaving behind established legends.

The 1990s and early 2000s were a golden era for Indian music. Film soundtracks and Indipop albums were flying off the shelves, with hits like Aashiqui and Bolo Ta Ra Ra.. selling 1.5 crore copies each. But no one could have predicted the shift that Himesh Reshammiya’s debut album, Aap Ka Surroor, would bring. Reports indicate that it sold a staggering 55 million copies globally, putting it in the same league as some of the best-selling albums in the world. To put this into perspective, its sales surpassed iconic albums like The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and 21 by Adele.

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What makes this feat even more remarkable is that Himesh never planned to be a singer. A successful composer with hits like Aashiq Banaya Aapne and Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, he stumbled into singing almost by chance. “The right song came along,” he said, and the rest is history.

Aap Ka Surroor featured 11 original songs and 7 remixes, including hit tracks like Naam Hai Tera, Tera Surroor, and Samjho Na. The music videos, featuring upcoming stars like Deepika Padukone, further boosted the album’s popularity.

The album featured 11 original tracks and 7 remixes, with songs like Tera Surroor and Naam Hai Tera dominating the charts. The music videos, including Deepika Padukone’s debut in Naam Hai Tera, added to the craze. The album’s success even spawned a film, Aap Kaa Surroor, marking Himesh’s acting debut.

Even the biggest names in Indian music—Sonu Nigam, AR Rahman, and Diljit Dosanjh—never came close to matching this sales figure. While streaming now defines success, Aap Ka Surroor remains an unmatched phenomenon in physical album sales, making Himesh Reshammiya an unlikely record-breaker in Indian music history. Even during the peak of Indipop, no private album crossed 8 million copies.

Today, with streaming platforms taking over, physical album sales feel like a thing of the past. Yet, Aap Ka Surroor remains a milestone in Indian music history—when one man’s unexpected journey shattered records in a way that may never happen again.