International cosmetic giant L'Oreal Paris has surprisingly dropped Aishwarya Rai Bachchan from their 2011 global 'Happy New Year' commercial.
While Aishwarya is the only international brand ambassador to be dropped from the new campaign, L'Oreal dropped a second bomb by roping in Freida Pinto, Hollywood's Indian flavour of the season, in the commercial.
The brand's international ambassadors include Jane Fonda, Diane Kruger, Beyonce Knowles, Claudia Schiffer, Milla Jovovich, Patrick Dempsey, Rachel Weisz, Laeticia Casta, Evangeline Lilly and Gerard Butler.
All of them feature in the new campaign except Aishwarya, who was roped in by the company in 2005 as one of its global spokesmodels. The buzz doing the rounds is that the prestigious cosmetic brand has plans to rope in Freida as their new global spokesmodel from India.
The commercial, which has been uploaded on L'Oreal Paris' French site, features the brand's spokesmodels delivering hard sell lines in French and English. Freida incidentally gets as much screen space as the other stars.
Many in Bollywood feel the brand's disinterest in Ash could have to do with the fact that she hasn't been very active on the international front of late. Right now, Freida is clearly the exotic flavour of the season in the West.
L'Oreal Paris' UK portal states: 'Freida, India's very own million dollar baby, has gone from strength to strength, be it upcoming international films or building her reputation as the young fashionista across the globe. Freida's name has been firmly engraved in the minds of all.'