Amul clears air on Mascot’s origins after viral claim; says ‘not inspired by Shobha Tharoor’
A viral claim linking Shashi Tharoor’s sister to the Amul Girl went viral, but Amul confirmed the mascot was independently created.
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A viral social media video suggesting that the Amul Girl, one of India’s most iconic advertising mascots, was inspired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s sister Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan has sparked curiosity and controversy.
Marketing consultant Dr Sanjay Arora shared the video on Instagram, claiming that Amul’s advertising head Sylvester daCunha had based the 1966 mascot on a childhood photograph of Shobha, the daughter of his friend Chandran Tharoor. The clip, which racked up over 1.8 million views, even caught the attention of Shobha herself.
Responding on X, Shobha clarified that while she did appear in an Amul advertisement as a baby photographed by filmmaker Shyam Benegal, and her sister Smita later featured in the brand’s first colour ads, she could not confirm whether she had inspired the enduring blue-haired, polka-dotted character created by illustrator Eustace Fernandes.
“I was indeed an Amul baby… but whether I was the inspiration for the Amul Girl, I cannot say,” she wrote.
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/kIYvmqBYAp
— Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan (@ShobhaTharoor) August 21, 2025
Amul, however, issued an official statement dismissing the viral claim. “We wish to clarify that the Amul Girl illustration is not influenced by Shobha Tharoor. She was created by Sylvester daCunha and illustrator Eustace Fernandes,” the company said.
The mascot, born in 1966, was conceived to counter Polson Butter’s demure ‘butter girl’. DaCunha wanted a bolder, cheekier symbol that would stand out. After sifting through over 700 photographs of children, he and Fernandes settled on the now-famous wide-eyed girl in a red polka-dotted dress, who went on to front Amul’s “utterly butterly delicious” campaign, now among the world’s longest-running ad series.
The Tharoor sisters’ association with Amul as child models remains part of the brand’s colourful history, but the Amul Girl herself was a pure creative invention, not a direct portrait of anyone.
