It appears that art directors burdened with a heavy airbrushing trigger finger is a global problem for Elle magazine.

Elle India is in hot water for allegedly digitally lightening the skin of their current cover girl, actress and beauty queen ­Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. On the cover, Bachchan is photographed in a lavish gold gown with a sleek updo hairstyle, but her skin tone steals the show as it appears many shades lighter than in candid photos and production stills from her Bollywood films.

Bachchan's inside cover story features photos in which her complexion looks just as retouched as the cover itself.

While airbrushing photos is a common practice in the publishing world, this is the second time an edition of Elle has come under fire for alledgly digitally enhancing the skin of one of its cover girls in the past several months. The American edition was criticized for its October 2010 issue which featured actress Gabourey Sidibe on one of its four celebrity covers with noticeably lighter skin than her natural complexion.

In response to that incident, Elle claimed "nothing out of the ordinary" was done.

"We have four separate covers this month, and Gabby's cover was not retouched any more or less than the others," they said in an official statement.

Elle has yet to comment on the controversy surrounding Bachchan's cover.

Take a look at another Photoshop nightmare -- an Ann Taylor site glitch revealed before and after retouched photos in August.

Click here for more cases of Photoshop gone wrong, plus the 11 biggest Photoshop fails of 2010.