From Parliament to Bollywood: India’s power players join viral AI ‘80s retro photo craze

The viral '80s AI retro picture trend has taken social media by storm in India, with Bollywood actors, politicians and sportspersons using ChatGPT prompts to recreate their modern photographs in the fashion and photography styles of the 1980s. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were among the politicians who joined the trend on Wednesday.

Rijiju shared an AI-generated picture of himself standing near a car and wrote on X, "Why is everyone going back to the 80s vibes? I'm also forced to 80s nostalgia!"

Sarma also shared his retro avatar, captioning it, "Getting to any trend which has nostalgia attached to it. Back to the 80s eh!" Chouhan posted an image of himself wearing a sweater with the caption, "80s called, I answered."

Former cricketer Irfan Pathan shared a series of AI-generated images showing him in retro outfits, including a blazer, trousers and white shirt, as well as denim jeans and a Nike jacket. "Trend rukni Nahi chahiye. Let's go back to 80s," he wrote on Instagram. Chess Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa also joined the craze with an AI-generated picture of himself playing chess in a denim jacket.

Bollywood actors Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra embraced the trend on Instagram, with Kiara sharing a digitally reimagined portrait of the couple as a classic 1980s Bollywood pairing. She captioned it, "Back to the 80's." Parineeti Chopra also shared AI-generated retro images with husband Raghav Chadha, featuring vintage hairstyles, makeup and outfits.

The trend allows users to upload selfies with detailed prompts to AI tools such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini. The technology transforms the images with period-inspired hairstyles, clothing, film grain and old-school studio lighting while retaining facial features. The craze has rapidly spread across Instagram and X. (ANI)

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