Google Gemini AI Nano Banana creates retro-style photos; ‘Red Saree’ trend goes viral

Google’s Generative AI Nano Banana is gaining immense popularity in India. People are using it to create hyper-realistic portraits of themselves and edit old images with new mock-ups.

The ‘Red Saree’ trend has swept social media, with users transforming their existing photos into vintage-style portraits of themselves dressed in a red saree, with 90’s style tousled hair, while basking in the golden glow of a sunset.

This new trend is reminiscent of the viral surge in popularity of ChatGPT’s Studio Ghibli-inspired portraits that swept across social media platforms a few months ago.

The Nano Banana trend gained momentum after Google introduced its AI image generation tool, Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, or Nano Banana, within the Gemini app. This model enables users to make highly realistic and seamless edits to photos, such as blurring backgrounds, removing or adding objects, and altering colors, all based on text prompts.

Other popular Nano Banana prompts allow users to create photos of 3D anime, manga, or mecha figurines that appear as if they’ve been professionally printed. Additionally, users can generate AI photos that depict them hugging their younger selves. Many Nano Banana users are also restoring old photos, making color edits to newer ones, or virtually experimenting with intriguing haircuts and clothing by uploading their images.

The resulting images have been shared across social media platforms such as Instagram, X, Facebook, and even LinkedIn.

“The Nano Banana craze is officially sweeping the world, with way over 500 million images generated globally since launch,” Google said in a blog post.

Google is positioning Nano Banana within a broader push to make advanced editing accessible through prompt-based workflows. In the Gemini app, users can describe changes and receive results in roughly 25 seconds, removing the need for traditional editing skills. The model excels at targeting specific elements while keeping unedited areas intact, supporting both casual users and professionals.

Privacy controls allow users to manage data through the ‘My Activity’ section that lets them keep activity on, turn it off, delete all history, or remove specific prompts and images. For one-off, off-the-record sessions, an “incognito” or temporary chat mode is available, offering granular control without digging into settings.

Google said that content provenance and safety are reinforced through watermarking that is both visible and invisible on generated or edited images. Multiple safety filters run on every image to prevent outputs that violate guidelines.