Fact Check: Viral video showing actress Rashmika Mandanna entering lift is a Deepfake
Deepfake is a type of artificial intelligence that can create convincing images, videos, and audio hoaxes. Deepfake uses machine learning and AI to manipulate visual content that can fool several people.
Claim :
Viral video shows Indian actress Rashmika MandannaFact :
The person in the video is not actress Rashmika Mandanna, it is a British-Indian girl Zara Patel
Deepfake is a type of artificial intelligence that can create convincing images, videos, and audio hoaxes. Deepfake uses machine learning and AI to manipulate visual content that can fool several people. Several AI-generated videos have been in circulation on social media worldwide but these deepfakes are now becoming more localized resulting in locally generated deepfakes.
One such video targeting Indian actress Rashmika Mandanna is in circulation on social media. The video shows the actress entering an elevator and saying hi to the person in the elevator. This video has been shared by several Instagram accounts with comments like “Yeh Rashmika Hai?? Crushmikaaaaa”
Fact Check:
The claim is Misleading. The video is manipulated using AI technology.
When observed carefully, in the beginning of the video we can see a different face which changes to that of Rashmika Mandanna when she is entering the lift.
When we searched the Instagram account of the actress, we did not find the viral video shared there.
When searched further, we found a post by Abhishek Kumar, a journalist, on X (Twitter), raising concerns about the need for new legal and regulatory measures to combat the spread of fake content on the internet. He shared the viral video with the caption “There is an urgent need for a legal and regulatory framework to deal with deepfake in India. You might have seen this viral video of actress Rashmika Mandanna on Instagram. But wait, this is a deepfake video of Zara Patel. This thread contains the actual video.”
He also shared the original video with the caption “The original video is of Zara Patel, a British-Indian girl with 415K followers on Instagram. She uploaded this video on Instagram on 9 October.”
Amitabh Bachchan also shared the post by Abhishek with the caption “Yes, this is a strong case for legal”.
When searched for Zara Patel, we found her Instagram account Zaarapatell. According to her bio, she is a full-time data engineer and a British- Indian girl.
We also found the original video of her published on Instagram with the caption: “You almost closed the elevator door on me again”
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Enterpreneurship, Skill Development, Electornics and Technology also re-tweeted the post by Abhishek with clarification that PM Narendra Modi’s government is committed to ensuring Safety and Trust of all Digital citizens using internet. Under the IT rules notified in April, 2023 - it is a legal obligation for platforms to ensure no misinformation is posted by any user, ensure that when reported by any user or govt, misinformation is removed in 36 hrs, If platforms do not comply wth this, rule 7 will apply and platforms can be taken to court by aggrieved person under provisions of IPC. Deep fakes are latest and even more dangerous and damaging form of misinformation and needs to be dealt with by platforms
Therefore, the video showing Indian actress Rashmika Mandanna walking into an elevator is not an original one. The video has been generated digitally using another video published by an Instagram user Zaara Patel. The claim is Misleading.
