Ever wondered who inspired Amul’s iconic mascot: the blue-haired girl in a red polka-dotted dress? A viral video claimed that the beloved Amul Girl was actually modelled after a childhood photo of Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, the sister of Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor.
The Amul Girl, one of the most iconic and long-running mascots in Indian advertising, played a pivotal role in shaping the dairy brand’s success. Dr Sanjay Arora, a renowned speaker and marketing consultant, shared a video on his Instagram account revealing not only the “inspiration” behind the Amul Girl but also the marketing strategies that helped make the campaign one of the longest-running in the world.
After his video went viral, garnering over 1.8 million views and even capturing the attention of Shobha Tharoor herself. Taking to X, she wrote that while she was indeed featured in an Amul ad as a baby. The photograph was taken by celebrated filmmaker Shyam Benegal. Later, her sister, Smita Tharoor, became the second Amul Girl when the dairy firm launched its first colour advertisements. She, however, was not certain if she was the inspiration for the dairy brand's mascot later created by Eustace Fernandes.
Received a charming reel posted by @chiefsanjay from so many asking whether I inspired the UtterlButterly blue haired cherub. Yes I was the first Amul baby. Yes #ShyamBenegal took the photos. My sister @SmitaTharoor was in the 2nd colour campaign. We may have. But we don’t know. pic.twitter.com/kIYvmqBYApRelated stories
— Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan (@ShobhaTharoor) August 21, 2025
Responding to it, Dr Arora wrote, “There you go, guys, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan herself acknowledges and appreciates it."
Amul, however, released a statement to confirm that she was not the inspiration behind the iconic Amul Girl. “We wish to clarify that the Amul Girl illustration is not influenced by Ms Shobha Tharoor. She was created by Mr Sylvester daCunha and illustrator Mr Eustace Fernandes.”
How did the iconic Amul Girl come into being?
According to the video shared by Dr Arora, in the 1960s, Amul was an underdog in the market, while Polson dominated the industry. To compete with the popular rival, Amul’s advertising head, Sylvester da Cunha, decided to create a mascot that would stand out from Polson’s sweet, soft butter girl. In 1966, he began the search for a child model to represent what would become the iconic Amul Girl. Despite reviewing over 700 photographs of young girls, none seemed to match the vision he had in mind.
It was then that he remembered his close friend from Kerala, Chandran Tharoor. Sylvester da Cunha reached out and asked for pictures of his children. The video claimed that when he opened the envelope, he saw a 10-month-old girl with a ponytail. That little girl was reportedly Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan. The picture immediately clicked with Sylvester Da Cunha, and that wide-eyed Amul girl later went on to win several hearts in India with the “utterly butterly delicious” campaigns.
And Shashi Tharoor had himself talked about his sisters being the face of Amul’s advertising campaign. According to Onmanorama, back in 2016, he wrote an article about his sisters being featured as Amul babies. Later, when he joined politics, he appeared in one of the cartoon advertisements for the dairy brand.
(With inputs from PTI)
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