Filmmaker Pahlad Kakkar recalled how Aishwarya Rai's brief appearance in 1993 Pepsi advertisement shot her to overnight fame. He recalled, "Aishwarya was unknown. We wanted a girl who's a stopper, she comes around for four seconds, and she needs to stop the country in its tracks." He added, "I got 5,000 phone calls...saying, 'Who's [she], 'Where did she come from?'"