This 1993 ad made Aishwarya Rai so famous, people would question if it’s fair for her to participate in Miss india

Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai won the Miss World contest in 1994. Before she made her way to the beauty pageant, Aishwarya appeared in a Pepsi advertisement in 1993, which also starred actors Aamir Khan and Mahima Chaudhry. Aishwarya’s name in the ad, Sanjana, became so famous after the video commercial was released, that several people named their daughters Sanjana. Also Read: When Aishwarya Rai revealed how same things happened before Miss India and Miss World, called it ‘ridiculous’

In the video, Aamir Khan is playing chess at his home alone, when he hears his doorbell and opens the door for his beautiful neighbour Mahima Chaudhry, who asks him to get her a bottle of Pepsi. In order to impress her, Aamir goes out in rain, struggles but ultimately manages to get a bottle of the beverage. When he gets back home, the door bell rings again and Mahima says, “It must be Sanju.” Aishwarya then makes her entry and says, “Hi I am Sanjana. Got another Pepsi?”

Aishwarya’s great looks won her many fans that year. A year later, as she competed in the Miss India pageant, many felt that it was unfair to other contestants considering how famous Aishwarya had already become. Even Sushmita Sen decided to with

Many fans reacted to the 90s ad in the comments section. One said, “Aishwarya stole the entire ad in 3 seconds.” Another one wrote, “This scene made her overnight famous face in India.” While one person named Sanjana wrote, “This ad is literally how I got my name” another one wrote, “This ad was something back then, Loved it.”

A report by Afaqs claims that according to voter rolls from the 2015 Delhi assembly election, “there were more than twice as many Sanjanas born in 1993 as in the preceding three years.” The report also states that almost 50 girls were named Sanjana in 1993 after the ad was aired.

Aishwarya will be soon seen in The Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 which will release on September 30. The film stars Aishwarya in dual roles –one of queen Nandini, the princess of Pazhuvoor, and the other of Mandakini Devi. The film is a cinematic adaptation of author Kalki Krishnamurthy’s Tamil novel of the same name which was released in the form of a series during the 1950s. It will release in theatres in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.