A viral AI photo trend that transforms modern selfies into 1980s-style portraits has taken over Indian social media this week, with politicians, actors and cricketers all joining in.
Users upload a recent photograph to an AI image tool and ask it to recreate the picture in an 80s aesthetic, keeping their facial features intact while changing the clothing, hairstyle, lighting, background and colour grading.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Kiren Rijiju and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma were among the politicians who shared their AI-generated retro portraits, while Congress MP Shashi Tharoor instead posted an actual photo of himself from the 1980s.
Bollywood stars Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra, along with cricketers Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, also joined the trend on their social media accounts.
The trend was popularised on Instagram via the platform’s ‘Add Yours’ sticker and follows earlier viral AI image crazes in 2026, including Studio Ghibli-style portraits and action-figure avatars.
The trend was popularised on Instagram through the platform’s ‘Add Yours’ sticker, which lets users chain their own versions of a viral format onto a shared thread.
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.
Vintage 1980s film camera (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
