A video showing a man at a wedding putting vermilion on a bride's forehead and then leaving with her was passed off as a real incident by several news organisations, including ABP News TV, Asianet News, and Zee News Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh.
However, this is a scripted video and not a real incident. Several such staged videos have been shared with false claims over the last few months.
While most appear to be harmless and have been created either for "entertainment" or "awareness" purposes, we have documented how such videos are indiscriminately used to push false communal narratives here.
CLAIM
Several media outlets like ABP News TV , Asianet News, and Zee News shared the viral video as a real incident and mentioned that a bride left her groom for another man at a wedding.
(Note: Swipe to check screenshots)
The claim was shared by several news media outlets.
(Source: Zee News /Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting a Google reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video, we came across another video uploaded on Facebook by a user named 'Divya Vikram' on 8 July 2022.
Even though the clip was slightly different, the same actors could be seen performing the same act in this one too.
The people seen in the two videos are the same.
(Source: The Quint)
We also found another video uploaded on 7 July 2022 with more people in it. This clip was based on the same concept.
It also included the same people as the viral video.
The people seen in the two videos are the same.
(Source: The Quint)
This page, with 28,000 likes on Facebook, uploads skits on various topics and most of their videos include people at wedding functions.
We also noticed that the same people were seen in numerous other videos on the same Facebook page.
The Quint has reached out to the creator of the page and this article will be updated when we receive a reply.
Evidently, the same actors were used to make different videos surrounding the bride and they do not show a real incident, contrary to what was claimed by several news outlets and social media users.
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