A viral AI photo trend recreating modern selfies in a 1980s style has spread rapidly across social media this week.
The trend involves uploading a recent photo to an AI tool, which keeps facial features intact while changing clothing, hairstyle, lighting, background and colour grading to an 80s look.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Kiren Rijiju and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have shared AI-generated retro portraits, while Shashi Tharoor posted a genuine 1980s photo instead.
Kiara Advani, Sidharth Malhotra, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul are among the other public figures who have joined the trend.
The trend spread mainly through Instagram’s ‘Add Yours’ sticker and follows earlier viral AI image crazes this year, including Studio Ghibli-style portraits and action-figure avatars.
Some commentators have raised questions about the privacy and data implications of uploading personal photos to AI image tools to generate these viral portraits.
Actors Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra were among the Bollywood stars who joined the trend, sharing their AI-generated 1980s portraits on social media.
The trend was popularised on Instagram through the platform’s ‘Add Yours’ sticker, which lets users chain their own versions of a viral format onto a shared thread.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor notably opted out of using AI altogether, instead sharing an actual photograph of himself from the 1980s.
Cricketers Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were also among the public figures who shared AI-generated 80s-style portraits, adding to the trend’s reach among sports fans.
The 80s photo trend follows a string of earlier viral AI image crazes in 2026, including Studio Ghibli-style portraits and action-figure avatars.
The resulting images typically mimic vintage analogue camera aesthetics, ranging from retro Bollywood-style studio portraits to classic family photo album looks.
Users generate the images by uploading a recent photo and asking an AI tool to preserve their facial features while changing clothing, hairstyle, lighting, background and colour grading to match the 1980s.
Vintage 1980s film camera (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
