It has been discovered that a widely circulated video purporting to feature Bollywood star Aamir Khan endorsing a political party is actually a doctored segment from Satyameva Jayate. Additionally, the actor has denied any affiliation with politics or political parties.
What is asserted?
A video featuring Bollywood star Aamir Khan criticizing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and endorsing the Indian National Congress has gone viral, just one week before India’s general elections in 2024.
Mr. Khan says, “Friends, if you believe India is a poor country, you are entirely mistaken,” in the 31-second video. In this country, every person is a lakhpati, or millionaire. Everybody ought to possess at least Rs 15 lakh. What is that? You lack the necessary funds. What happened to your Rs 15 lakh then? Watch out for jumla or false promises.”
“Vote for justice, vote for Congress,” is the promotional message that ends the video.
A post by Rajasthani Congress MLA Harish Meena implied that Khan was making fun of the BJP for its ‘unfulfilled promises’ to put Rs 15 lakh into the bank account of every Indian citizen.
In the run-up to the 2014 general elections, then-prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi made this “promise” at an election rally. It is often misunderstood as an electoral pledge by the BJP to unearth black money stashed away in foreign bank accounts. This post is available here in archived form.
Still, the assertion is false. Using deepfake audio, the video featuring Khan making fun of the BJP for its “unfulfilled promises” has been altered. The actor hosted an old television program from which the footage was taken.
How did we discover reality?
After closely examining the video, we discovered that Khan’s lip movements are not in sync with certain audio clips. Towards the end of the video, we also heard the phrase “Satyamev Jayate” repeated several times over background music. This led to the creation of the Khan-hosted television show Satyamev Jayate, which debuted its first season on May 6, 2012.
We found out that the initial video was a teaser for the show’s fourth episode, which debuted on August 30, 2016, on the official Satyamev Jayate YouTube channel. Khan genuinely stated in this video, “Friends, you are completely mistaken if you believe that India is a poor country. since each and every person in the nation is a crorepati. Everyone ought to own at least one crore rupees. How did you say that? You lack the necessary funds. So, where was your one crore rupees? This Sunday at eleven in the morning, find out.”
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In the aforementioned episode, Khan talks about India’s wealth and asserts that every Indian is a crorepati. The episode suggests that each Indian could be worth crores if the nation’s natural resources, land, and infrastructure were distributed equally and accuses certain people and corporations of systematic looting of India’s wealth.
How did the popular video get made?
We discovered that the viral video had changed a few phrases after comparing the two. “15 lakh” was used in place of “1 crore,” and “Beware of jumla promises” was substituted for the sentence “Find out this Sunday at 11 in the morning.” Deepfake technology is likely involved because Khan’s voice is strikingly similar to the altered audio.
The trailer for the fourth episode of the television series, titled Kings Every Day, was released on the official website of Satyamev Jayate. On March 23, 2014, the episode was posted to their YouTube channel. The goal of the series was to bring important social issues to people’s attention and encourage dialogue. Voting rights and participation in government were the main topics of this episode, according to the video description.
“Totally false”: Khan
On Tuesday, April 16, Khan provided an explanation regarding the widely shared video through his official representative. The actor called the widely shared video “fake and completely untrue.” “We wish to emphasize that Mr. Aamir Khan has never endorsed any political party throughout his 35-year career,” the statement clarified further. According to reports, Khan has also reported the video in a formal complaint to the Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Cell.
The decision
The widely circulated video purporting to show Bollywood star Aamir Khan criticizing the BJP and promoting the Congress party is actually an audio deepfake. It was made with vintage video snippets from a Satyamev Jayate episode that Khan hosted. As a result, the claim has been flagged as untrue.
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