Fact Check: Video of a man posing as an astronaut and moonwalking on potholes is not from Kanpur but Bengaluru
A video of a man posing as an astronaut and moonwalking on the potholes off a road is in circulation with the claims that the video was shot in Kanpur. A few users claim that the video is from Bundelkhand while some others claim it to be Musafirkhana but several users claim it to be from Kanpur.
Claim :
A video of a man posing as an astronaut at the potholes on the roads is from Kanpur/ Bundelkhand.Fact :
The video shows artist Badal Nanjudaswamy from Bengaluru showing off the bad roads in the city
A video of a man posing as an astronaut and moonwalking on the potholes off a road is in circulation with the claims that the video was shot in Kanpur. A few users claim that the video is from Bundelkhand while some others claim it to be Musafirkhana but several users claim it to be from Kanpur.
The claim in Hindi goes as “कानपुर के लोग सच में बड़े क्
A few users shared the claim:
“ हमारा बुंदेलखंड के लोग सच में बड़े क्रिएटिव हैं। मुझे पहले
Upon translation, the claim says “Our people of Bundelkhand are really very creative. At first, I thought it was actually a video of a man walking on the moon.”
While a few other users claimed “ये मुसाफिरखाना के लोग एक दिन
When translated, it goes as “These Musafirkhana people will one day leave behind Modi ji in acting… At first I thought that this is really a video of moonwalking. After that the auto driver”
Fact Check:
The claim is misleading. The video is from Bengaluru and was shot in 2019.
When the key frames extracted from the video were used to perform a Google reverse image search, we found several reports stating that the video was shot in Bengaluru and is from 2019.
According to an article on the news website, Outlook India, published in September 2019, the video was published on social media by Benguluru’s artist Baadal Nanjudaswamy. The video showed a man dressed as an astronaut walking on the potholes in the city shown as the moon’s surface. In the minute-long video, the man can be seen carefully walking on the Tunganagar Main Road, as if he is on the moon's surface. Once it is zoomed out, one can see the Bengaluru streets filled with potholes.
This is not the first time Nanjundaswamy has used his creativity to convey his message. In June, he placed a life-sized crocodile in the middle of a street in Bengaluru which drew the attention of the local authorities. In 2018, he had drawn a cobweb around a pothole to make the authorities notice it.
We also found the original video posted by Baadal Nanjundaswamy on September 2, 2019, on X (previously Twitter) tagging the location as Bengaluru, India.
This video was also shared by an article published by bbc.com
The video was also debunked by Boomlive.com
Hence, the video of a man donning an astronaut suit and moonwalking on the potholes of a bad road is from Bengaluru but not Kanpur or Bundelkhand. The claim is misleading