Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 22 : The 1990s gave us countless memorable advertisements that continue to resonate with audiences even today and one that truly stood out was the iconic Pepsi commercial featuring Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
At the time, neither was a major star. Aamir had only done a few films, while Aishwarya was still in college.
In a recent interview with ANI, ad legend Prahlad Kakkar recounted how the brief appearance of Aishwarya Rai in the 1993 Pepsi advertisement instantly captivated the nation. He credited the commercial for giving a break to the then-unknown college student.
"The battle was in the casting...It took us three months to cast that film. We wanted people who were already part of the story. Aishwarya was unknown. We wanted a girl who was a stopper because she comes around for four seconds, and she needs to stop the country in its tracks and wants everyone to say, 'Wow, who is this girl? Who is this girl?' And that's exactly what happened," he said.
Recalling the day the commercial was released, he added, "The day it was released, I got 5,000 phone calls the next morning saying, Who is Sanju? (Name of Aishwarya's character in the ad) Where did she come from?" Prahlad recalled.
Prahlad, the mastermind behind the hit ad, revealed that it was Aishwarya's striking eyes that captivated him, leading him to cast her as 'Sanju'.
"I wasn't satisfied with anyone...they just didn't have that quality. It wasn't enough to be special. I was looking for someone extra special. The kind of face that could stop the whole world in four seconds. And then, some girls found her, her jhola slung over her shoulder, dressed in torn jeans, with wild hair...She was in an Architectural college," Prahlad recalled.
"So I saw her and said, Is she it? They said, 'Let's give her a makeup test.' So what stopped me, what actually made me pause, were eyes. When I looked into her eyes, I saw the entire universe. With each mood, the colour of her eyes changed... the colour changed from grey to green to blue depending on her mood. And that mesmerised me. So we gave her a make-up test and glamorised her. And we just were gobsmacked. She was just so mesmerising," he shared.
This iconic Pepsi ad was released prior to Aishwarya Rai winning the Miss India title in 1994. Notably, actress Mahima Chaudhary also featured in the commercial.