Social media is up in arms over another faux-pas by the fashion and beauty industry – this time, directing their anger at Maxim India magazine for allegedly airbrushing the armpits of its new cover star Priyanka Chopra.

The 33 year old model and actress is at the centre of a social media storm dubbed ‘Armpit Gate’ – a long way from the usual concerns of this nature over digital image manipulation and airbrushing post-photoshoot.

The actress, who is the star of US TV series ‘Quantico’, appeared on the June / July cover of India’s version of Maxim magazine, but since the image went up on Instagram at the weekend a large number of people have been criticising the publication for making Chopra’s armpits look “unrealistically” smooth and the body-shaming issues this might cause.

The publication had recently declared Chopra to be the ‘hottest woman in the world’, but it hasn’t yet commented on the reaction to its cover, and neither has the star herself.

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Chopra posted the image on Friday (June 17th) via her Instagram account, and while many of her followers admired the photoshoot, a number of others flagged up the unrealistic body image they felt it projected to others.

“Beautiful PC! But Barbie dolls armpits… too Photoshopped!!” commented one fan. “How Photoshopped can an armpit get????” commented another.

Priyanka ChopraPriyanka Chopra is at the centre of 'Armpit Gate' over her new cover shoot for Maxim India

“Don't think you need to be Photoshopped,” another upset fan added. “You should speak out against this… need to send positive message to our girls.”

Maxim India, for whom Chopra has been the cover star on two previous occasions before this, posted further images from the shoot over the weekend, in which her armpits appear to be unedited.

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