# 90s Fair & Lovely ad goes viral, Aishwarya Rai’s dubbed voice divides viewers 2026-08-21T10:48:16+00:00 | Entertainment | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet An old Fair & Lovely advertisement featuring Aishwarya Rai and Mahima Chaudhry from the 1990s has resurfaced online, sparking debate over whether Rai's voice was dubbed. The clip shows the two actresses before they became major stars, with Chaudhry complimenting Rai's skin and Rai crediting the fairness cream. The ad was directed by Kailash Surendranath. Social media users flooded the comments section on YouTube. One called it a "fun fact" that everyone now knows the truth about the product. Another wrote, "No way in hell that's their voice." Some fans focused on the actresses' looks, while one noted that Rai's beauty had nothing to do with the cream. The advertisement regularly goes viral for its 90s nostalgia factor. Aishwarya Rai's last film was Ponniyin Selvan: Part II, which released in April 2023. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The resurfacing of a 90s skin-lightening cream ad featuring two of Bollywood's biggest stars reignites a long-running debate about colourism in Indian advertising. The Fair & Lovely brand, now renamed Glow & Lovely after a 2020 rebranding attempt following years of criticism, built its entire pitch on promising lighter skin. That a dubbed voice became the talking point, not the product's message, shows how much the public conversation has shifted. Yet the brand's parent company, Hindustan Unilever, still sells variants in Indian markets, and no court or regulator has banned the category. Watch for social media reaction volumes: if this resurfaces hard enough, consumer affairs may take note. ## Coverage - ndtv.com Led with the voice-dubbing trivia and social media nostalgia, not the problematic fairness-cream message This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Aishwarya Rai, Fair & Lovely, Mahima Chaudhry Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/90s-fair-lovely-ad-goes-viral-aishwarya-rais-dubbed-voice-divides-viewers/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/90s-fair-lovely-ad-goes-viral-aishwarya-rais-dubbed-voice-divides-viewers/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/