In India, the popularity of the generative image model is rapidly growing , officially known as Nano Banana or Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, which has driven a frenzy of interest in the Gemini app. The model has found unexpected creative uses—from retro portraits in the style of 90s Bollywood to “AI saree,” where users create their own images in traditional attire.
Additionally, Indians are generating selfies against iconic backdrops like Big Ben or British phone booths, experimenting with time travel effects, creating their own miniature figurines, and even turning themselves into past postage stamps. Some trends, like the figurines, originated in other countries, but it was the Indian audience that gave them global popularity.
Following the release of the Nano Banana update on September 1, Gemini topped the free app rankings in India on the App Store and Google Play. The number of daily downloads of Gemini in the country increased by 667 percent, peaking at over 400,000 on September 13. From January to August, India recorded 15.2 million downloads of Gemini, which is 55 percent more than in the USA.
Despite leading in downloads, Indian users spend less in the app than American users. According to Appfigures, India accounted for only 1.5 percent of global spending but showed record growth—18 percent in just the first half of September.
Amid the wave of enthusiasm, security questions arise: users upload their own photos to Gemini for transformation. Google applies a prominent diamond-shaped watermark and a hidden SynthID marker to identify AI-generated content. The company is also testing a platform to detect AI images and plans to make it available to everyone.
