How Shashi Tharoor's sisters became the face of Amul

The first Amul baby is from Kerala. So is the first colour Amul baby. And both of them are sisters of Shashi Tharoor MP!

These yesteryear tales have now become talking point on social media. The sudden interest was triggered after an article written by Shashi Tharoor in 2016 on his sisters being featured as Amul baby was widely shared.

"This could be news for several Keralites and hence is being widely circulated now," Tharoor told Manorama.

This was way back in 1961, when the White Revolution had just begun in India. Amul’s advertising agency was on the lookout for a baby girl to feature on the packet of the milk powder. Then Sylvester da Cunha of the Advertising and Sales Promotion company approached Shashi Tharoor's father and requested him to share his children's photographs.

The ad agency, that was not happy with 712 photos of babies, took an instant liking for Tharoor's baby girl Shobha. Thus, Shobha became the face of the Amul girl. The wide-eyed Amul girl later went on to win several hearts in India with the ‘utterly butterly delicious’ ad campaigns.

But Amul's link to Tharoor does not end there. When the ad was released in colour format, Tharoor's younger sister Smitha became the chosen one. She is the first colour Amul baby.

Years later, Shobha was stunned to see her own baby photo on the wall of a village in Palakkad, Tharoor recounted.
 

Shobha went on to become Miss Kolkata in 1977. Smitha was a Miss India runner-up.

Shashi Tharoor too got a chance to share space with Amul, but much later. When he forayed into politics after leaving the United Nations, Tharoor too found himself on Amul cartoons.

"If my father had been around, he would have been delighted to see his son on the hoardings at Marine Drive in Mumbai," Tharoor quipped.

This article first appeared in Onmanorama