A frothy mix of milk and soda. That is all it is.
And yet, one scene in a Bollywood film was enough to send people across India searching for it.
When Dhurandhar released in December 2025 and became the year’s highest-grossing film, actor Gaurav Gera's character Mohammad Aalam, a juice shop owner in Karachi's Lyari market who is secretly an Indian spy, won audiences over with a single line:
"Darling, darling, dil kyu toda, peelo peelo Aalam doodh soda."
Short. Catchy. Unforgettable.
And just like that, doodh soda was everywhere.
But on one of the main roads in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, a vendor did not need a film to tell his story. His family had been making doodh soda long before it became a trend.
Also read: Who is Gaurav Gera: Dhurandhar Actor Mohammad Aalam
A Glass of History
The craze was real.
So a colleague and I set out to find it in Delhi.
We visited Derawal Soda Fountain, where customers didn’t need Dhurandhar as a reason to show up. They had been coming for years, some since childhood.
We spoke to the vendor, he told us his family originally sold doodh soda in Dera Ghazi Khan, a city that now sits in Pakistan, before the Partition. When the borders were drawn, they moved, carrying the recipe with them.
The drink itself goes back even further. According to Hindustan Times, doodh soda originated in Victorian England and travelled to the subcontinent during British colonial rule. It found a home in undivided Punjab, where milk was abundant and soda was still a novelty.
After Partition, it became especially popular in Pakistan, often served during Ramzan iftar.
In India, it stayed in pockets of Old Delhi, Amritsar and parts of Punjab.
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What Makes This Stall Different
The Mukherjee Nagar vendor is clear about one thing: he does not use bottled sodas.
He makes the flavours himself, a practice that sets him apart. Earlier, everything was done manually. Today, he uses a soda machine. A concession to time, not taste.
He also confirms that doodh soda never disappeared from Pakistan.
It was always there. Just less visible elsewhere.
As for preferences, one flavour dominates: rose.
Customers who walked in during the visit ordered it almost instinctively. Not because of a film, but because they always had.
Gen Z Found It. Regulars Never Lost It.
Since Dhurandhar released, the vendor noticed a change.
Younger customers have started showing up – curious, experimental, trying every flavour on the menu.
The regulars, meanwhile, had a different story to tell.
One older customer recalled how doodh soda was once a household ritual. His family would prepare it in large batches and serve it after dinner during summers.
His children don’t follow the tradition anymore.
The drink that once passed across generations now often ends with him.
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Brut images by Arritrika Putatunda and Vageesha Shrivastava
