Fact Check: Actors Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh did not endorse Congress, the videos are modified
With the marathon six-week schedule of the general elections starting on April 19, 2024, political parties and candidates are increasingly using AI-generated content to boost their campaigning.
Congress
With the marathon six-week schedule of the general elections starting on April 19, 2024, political parties and candidates are increasingly using AI-generated content to boost their campaigning.
Some parties are using AI-generated videos of leaders who had passed away. During Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, this has become the popular mode of campaigning where videos of the late leaders, Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi, were mostly circulated. Jayalalithaa, who died in 2016, was featured in an AI-generated audio message criticizing the state government.
Karunanidhi, who passed away in 2018, was digitally resurrected using AI-generated video where he praises his son MK Stalin, present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
During the Telangana elections in 2023, Bharat Rashtra Samithi released AI-generated images of its top leader K Chandra Sekhar Rao in various poses.
During a rally in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the public that the BJP would bring black money to India, if the party came to power. Several social media users also reminded that PM Modi suggested that he would deposit Rs 15 lakh of the black money into every citizen's account after confiscation.
Recently, a video showing Aamir Khan campaigning for the Indian National Congress party was shared virally on social media.
In this video, he can be heard saying that every citizen of India is a millionaire because every citizen should be having Rs 15 lakh in their accounts. He goes on to say that there is no such money added to our accounts and asks the public to beware of such fake promises or Jhumla promises. The video ends with the music playing Satyameva Jayate and with the slogan Vote for Nyay, Vote for Congress.
This video is shared with caption in Hindi “भारत का हर नागरिक लखपति है क्
When translated, it claims: “Every citizen of India is a millionaire because everyone should have at least Rs 15 lakh... What did you say? You don't have Rs 15 lakhs in your account.. So where did your Rs 15 lakhs go??? So be careful of such jokers. Otherwise it will be your loss”
We also found another video published by some social media users claiming that Indian actor Ranveer Singh is also campaigning for the Congress. In the video, he is seen talking to ANI, a news agency, taking a dig at Prime Minister Modi.
He can be heard saying: “The purpose of Modiji is to celebrate the sad lives of citizens of India because India is heading towards a time of injustice at a fast pace. So we should not stop demanding development and justice.”
In the video, we can see that his forehead is smeared with tilak while talking.
Fact Check:
The claim is False. Old videos of Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh are in circulation with AI-cloned audio criticizing the BJP.
When we look at both videos, they do not have appropriate lip sync in some parts of the video.
Video -1:
In Aamir Khan’s video, we can hear music that matches the title music of ‘Satyameva Jayate’, a TV show that featured Aamir Khan. This show was telecast on Star TV. When we performed a Google reverse image search of the screenshot extracted from the video, we found the original video published on YouTube channel of Satyameva Jayate on August 30, 2016.
In the video, he wore the same ensemble as in the viral video and he says that every citizen of India should have a crore rupees. Here is his statement in the promo: “Friends, if you think that India is a poor country then you are absolutely wrong. Because every citizen here is a millionaire. Everyone should have at least Rs 1 crore. What did you say? You don't have this amount? So where did your Rs 1 crore go? Know this Sunday at 11 am."
Aamir Khan denied any connection to politics or affiliation with any political party. The actor’s office stated: “We want to clarify [that] Aamir Khan has never endorsed any political party in his 35-year career. He has dedicated his efforts to raising public awareness through campaigns for the Election Commission during many past elections.”
Video 2:
The video showing Ranveer Singh also campaigning for the Indian National Congress and taking a dig at PM Modi is also going viral with the caption: ‘Vote for Nyay, Vote for Congress’.
When we searched the keyframes extracted from the video, we found that the original video was published on the YouTube channel of ANI with the title “Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh lauds PM Modi’s ‘Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi’ vision.” In this video, he can be seen lauding PM Modi for his vision.
We can see that there is no lip sync of the audio in some instances in the video.
We also found similar videos published on the Twitter account on April 14, 2024.
During Singh's trip to Varanasi, he participated in a fashion show at Namo Ghat, walking the ramp with actor Kriti Sanon for designer Manish Malhotra. Before the event, both stars visited the Vishwanath temple and shared their spiritual experiences with news agency ANI. These clips were manipulated to create the controversial 40-odd-second video now circulating on social media.
Therefore, the videos of Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh are going viral with false claims. The voice of the videos is AI-generated to mislead people. The claim is False.