From film cameras and vinyl records to vintage Levi’s and the grainy flash of a digicam, India’s Gen Z is mining the past to shape the future. In an age of ultra-fast-forward digital world, a growing number of young Indians are pressing “Rewind.” The “Nostalgia Economy” isn’t just alive—it’s thriving!

Brands are reviving everything from cassette players to ’90s soda brands, tapping into a generation hungry for the tactile, the flawed, and the familiar. But unlike the sentimental throwbacks of earlier decades, Gen Z’s nostalgia isn’t about returning but about reinterpreting. It’s equal parts aesthetic and identity, rebellion and ritual.

Expert Speak

According to Buddha Dev Biswas, a sociologist and assistant professor at JNU, the resurgence of analog formats among Gen Z isn’t about mere sentiment—it’s about survival. “Nostalgia becomes most intense during moments of cultural or technological upheaval. For many young people today, overwhelmed by climate anxiety, digital saturation, and economic instability, the past offers a symbolic refuge. In this context, nostalgia isn’t escapism but a form of resistance.”

This revival of film cameras, cassettes, and vinyl is more than visual flair, it’s a refusal. “It represents a symbolic refusal of impermanence. In a culture defined by speed and disposability, analog becomes a way to resist the erosion of memory, of identity, and of meaningful ritual.”

Business of Memory

Brands, both legacy and new-age, are mining cultural memory to sell sentiment and products. Rasna, for instance, has reappeared in nostalgic ad campaigns spotlighting its iconic orange drink with a modern twist. Saregama’s Carvaan radio, pre-loaded with golden era and Kishore Kumar hits, became a cross-generational bestseller. Fashion labels like The Souled Store are turning retro icons into sell-out merch lines. Nostalgia today is currency—and brands are spending BIG.

Tanya Roy, an art curator from Delhi says that everyone is tapping into it. “Larger commercial entities have to bank on it in a more commercial sense. There’s a lot of grassroots initiatives; youngsters are doing it out of passion.” Among them is Film Cam India, an Instagram-based business founded by young engineering graduates, offering refurbished analog cameras to India’s growing community of analog shutterbugs. “We started this platform to make analog photography more accessible,” say the founders. People are increasingly seeking an escape from digital saturation. Analog offers the perfect outlet. Customers aren’t just buying cameras, they’re buying slowness, presence, and a sense of community. For them, authenticity and good intentions are non-negotiables.

Saumya Tyagi, a trend analyst cautions, “It feels more like a trend cycle than a permanent shift. Nostalgia works in waves, it hits hard, gets overused, and then people move on. We’re already seeing that with Y2K starting to feel tired.” She notes that while the emotional need—comfort, connection, simplicity—is real and lasting, the packaging around it can grow stale. “For brands, the key is to go deeper than just aesthetics,” Saumya adds. “Instead of slapping on a retro look, they need to understand why people are drawn to certain eras or feelings and tell stories that resonate with that emotion. That’s how nostalgia can be meaningful.”

Yesterday Once More

Prabhir Arora (19) a student from Mumbai who collects vinyl, film cameras, and Indian movie memorabilia says, “We’re a generation breaking pattern. It’s not just about the aesthetic. I think we’re drawn to the charm of a time when everything wasn’t so instant.”

However, not everyone is sold on nostalgia as a marketing tool. Jude De Souza, founder of The Revolver Club, one of India’s premier vinyl and hi-fi destinations, says the store actively resists retro romanticism. “I have a fundamental distrust of anybody trying to leverage nostalgia to make a sale,” says Jude. For him, vinyl is a lifestyle choice: deep, slow, and deliberate. “Spotify is fast food. Records are fine dining,” he quips. Jude resists the idea that vinyl is retro. “When we started, people only wanted to buy jazz because they thought that’s what vinyl was for. That’s changed. Now, people are discovering new music through old formats not because it’s nostalgic, but because it feels more personal.”

Many youngsters are giving a fresh lease of life to cassette players, film cameras, movie DVDs lying in dusty drawers in their homes. Ishaan Grover (22), a student from Delhi says, “If you own a film camera or a vintage camera, there’s a certain level of edge that you have. It differentiates you from the general public.” Many Gen Z folks are also keen on physical tickets, fizzy goti soda, polaroid cameras, HMT wrist watches, cocktail napkins, pocket transistors, vintage shaving kits etc. “Old physical photo albums, they are so rare these days, the idea of growing old and flipping through childhood albums with my hands makes me emotional,” says Mansvi Saxena. These yesteryear items serve as memory placeholders.

Resurgence Of Nostalgia

Platforms like Instagram and TikTok only amplify the trend. While brands rush to capitalize on retro aesthetics, the deeper pull of nostalgia runs far beyond marketing. Drawing from Zygmunt Bauman’s idea of liquid modernity, Biswas notes that nostalgia is a yearning for solidity in an unstable world. “Gen Z isn’t nostalgic for a time they lived through—but for an imagined past that feels safer, slower, and more grounded. This is not about accuracy, it’s about effect.”

He adds that physical artifacts like records, old clothing, or film cameras serve a deeper function. “They’re what Pierre Nora would call lieux de mémoire, or sites of memory. These objects become symbolic anchors. They offer Gen Z a way to curate identity with intention—to touch time, to hold memory, and to express a form of slowness and control that digital life does not allow.”

As Berger and Luckmann wrote in The Social Construction of Reality, reality is shaped through shared meanings. In that sense, Gen Z’s embrace of the analog is a collective effort to construct a sense of authenticity and permanence in an age of algorithmic impermanence. The nostalgia economy is not just about consumption. It’s about care. About memory. About choosing the long way around in a world of shortcuts.