Out of a whopping 712 photographs of adorable babies, advertising legend Sylvester daCunha picked one. The photograph was of his friend and advertising professional Chandran Tharoor’s second child, Shobha. This was back in 1961. Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s younger sister, was just ten months old when she was photographed by filmmaker Shyam Benegal to become the first-ever Amul baby. The photograph of a wide-eyed, chubby baby with thick, straight hair isn’t something that India forgot easily.
Unsurprisingly, she says that she does not remember anything from the shoot. Upon hearing the news of the passing away of daCunha on Tuesday, the creator of the Amul girl, she tweeted, “Sylvie was a close friend of my father’s and had the same large-hearted approach to mentoring juniors. He picked me as an infant as the face of the first Amul baby.” However, she says that she hasn’t had any interactions with daCunha. “He was my father’s friend, and they worked together to set up the Advertising Club in Bombay. I was a child (less than 9) when we moved from Bombay to Calcutta,” she says.
Today, Srinivasan, who is based in California, is an award-winning children’s author and voiceover artist. She says that she grew up hearing stories from the shoot. “We had large photographs that were hung around the house, and I had heard the stories about the Amul campaign. I was the first Amul baby, and the photos were in black and white. My younger sister, Smita, was the baby in the colour photos two years later,” says Srinivasan.
Also read: Amul campaign is daCunha’s recipe of ageless branding: RS Sodhi
That was the only modelling assignment that Srinivasan had as a child. But she fondly remembers the time when she was crowned Miss Nivea as a teenager when actor Nafisa Ali was a judge. Later, in 1979, Srinivasan went on to win the Miss Calcutta pageant. “My mother encouraged my sister and me to participate in the Femina contest.”
The author of Prince With a Paintbrush: The Story of Raja Ravi Varma says that she loves the Amul cartoons for their punny wit and their reflection on the current national topic of conversation. “The cartoons have consistently captured the zeitgeist of the country,” she says.
While the Amul cartoons didn’t inspire her writings, she says, “I would like my books to resonate with readers as the cartoons have over the years. I suppose the fact that my book Prince with a Paintbrush was included as a clue in the most popular KBC show (Kaun Banega Crorepati) reflects that it too has captured national interest,” she signs off.