A viral AI photo trend is sweeping Indian social media, turning modern selfies into 1980s-style retro portraits.
The trend works by uploading a recent photo to an AI image tool, which preserves the person’s facial features while reworking their clothing, hairstyle, lighting, background and colour grading to match the era.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Kiren Rijiju and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have all shared AI-generated retro portraits, while Congress MP Shashi Tharoor instead posted a genuine 1980s photograph.
Bollywood actors Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra, alongside cricketers Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, have also participated in the trend online.
The craze spread through Instagram’s ‘Add Yours’ sticker feature and follows other viral AI image trends this year, including Studio Ghibli-style portraits and action-figure avatars.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor notably opted out of using AI altogether, instead sharing an actual photograph of himself from the 1980s.
Cricketers Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were also among the public figures who shared AI-generated 80s-style portraits, adding to the trend’s reach among sports fans.
The 80s photo trend follows a string of earlier viral AI image crazes in 2026, including Studio Ghibli-style portraits and action-figure avatars.
The resulting images typically mimic vintage analogue camera aesthetics, ranging from retro Bollywood-style studio portraits to classic family photo album looks.
Users generate the images by uploading a recent photo and asking an AI tool to preserve their facial features while changing clothing, hairstyle, lighting, background and colour grading to match the 1980s.
The trend has spread across Instagram, TikTok and X, with users sharing their AI-generated retro portraits alongside captions reflecting on how much has changed since the decade.
Some commentators have raised questions about the privacy and data implications of uploading personal photos to AI image tools to generate these viral portraits.
Actors Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra were among the Bollywood stars who joined the trend, sharing their AI-generated 1980s portraits on social media.
Vintage 1980s film camera (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
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