Deepfakes of Journalists Talking About Bihar NDA Leaders Funding Pak’s PTI Viral

All three videos are deepfakes. There is no credible evidence to corroborate this claim about Bihar's NDA leaders.

Deepfakes of journalists Ravish Kumar, Palki Sharma Upadhyay, and Shiv Aroor are being shared with the false claim that they reported about Bihar's NDA leaders funding Pakistan's PTI.

(Source: Instagram/Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A set of videos showing Indian journalists Ravish Kumar, Firstpost's Palki Sharma Upadhyay, and NDTV's Shiv Aroor are being shared on social media, which show segments of them talking about leaders from Bihar's National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) links with Pakistan's political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).

The claim: The videos are being shared to claim that the journalists have uncovered links between the two parties, finding that Bihar's NDA leaders 'funneled Indian tax payer money' to PTI "under Modi's nose," to fabricate the narrative that India 'won' Operation Sindoor.

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of more posts sharing these claims can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the videos are deepfakes, making the claim false.

• Additionally, there are no credible reports or official releases about NDA leaders funding any political parties in Pakistan.

How do we know?: On running a keyword search with the term 'NDA leaders funding Pakistan PTI', we did not find any relevant information to corroborate this claim from any credible or official source.

• We then watched each of the videos carefully and noticed some errors.

1. Ravish Kumar's Video

In his video, we noticed that he mispronounced 'नेता' (neta, or politician), spoke with an odd cadence, and paused in the middle of sentences, all of which a veteran journalist like Kumar would be unlikely to do.

• We looked for this video on Ravish Kumar's official YouTube channel, but did not find any video with a title about NDA leaders finding PTI.

• However, we did come across a video about Kumar discussing the outcomes of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.

• The video showed him wearing the same outfit, and was published on 20 November 2025.

Kumar does not mention PTI or NDA leaders funding Pakistani political parties at all in his report about Bihar elections.

Is it AI?: Owing to the errors noted in the audio track, we ran a part of this video through Hive Moderation's AI-generated content detection tool.

• It showed a 96.2 percent confidence in the audio track likely containing "AI-generated or deepfake content."

Hive flagged the audio track for containing AI-generated audio.

(Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)

• We also ran it through Hiya's Deepfake Voice detector, which gave the audio an authenticity score of one out of 100, noting that it was "likely a deepfake."

The audio was found to be a deepfake.

(Source: Hiya/Screenshot)

Journalist Vrinda Sharma, who reports with Kumar on the YouTube channel, shared a post on X calling the video "completely fake," and "An AI-generated video," confirming in a reply that the video was not real.

2. Palki Sharma Upadhyay's Video

Much like Kumar's video, Sharma's video, too, had inconsistencies.

• She spoke in a relatively flat tone throughout the video, taking pauses in odd places and speaking without breaks in others.

• At one point in the video she also seems to say "my level intelligence" instead of "high level intelligence leaks," mispronouncing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's name, both of which are uncharacteristic for a seasoned journalist.

The source: We went through Firstpost's YouTube channel, looking specificially at their 'Vantage' series, which Sharma hosts.

• Here, we came across a video of her in the same outfit seen in the claim, in a video about US President Donald Trump meeting Saudi Arabian Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman, published on 19 November 2025.

This video did not mention NDA, Bihar elections, or PTI in any way.

AI check: Hive Moderation's tool showed 72.8 percent likelihood for Sharma's video containing AI-generated or deepfake content.

For this video, tool was less confident.

(Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)

• Similarly, Hiya's tool gave this audio track the same authenticity score of one out of 100, calling it a deepfake.

The audio got a very low authenticity score.

(Source: Hiya/Screenshot)

3. Shiv Aroor's Video

Aroor's video followed the same script as Sharma's video.

• Some errors, such as mispronouncing Nitish Kumar's name and having inconsistent cadence, being common in both videos.

• A simple search on NDTV's verified YouTube channel led us to a video from 21 November 2025, which discussed the Tejas Aircraft crash at the 2025 Dubai Air Show.

• In repeating fashion, there was no mention of Bihar's election or its NDA leaders in this video as well.

Is this AI too?: Yes. For this one, Hive's tool showed 98.6 percent confidence in the audio being AI-generated.

The audio is AI-generated.

(Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)

Similarly, Hiya's tool gave this audio an authenticity score of one, again.

The audio track is a deepfake.

(Source: Hiya/Screenshot)

Conclusion: All three videos of journalists talking about Bihar's NDA leaders funding PTI are deepfakes.

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