Doctored video shows Akshay Kumar supporting ex-Pak PM Imran Khan

Hyderabad: A video of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar reportedly supporting former Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan has gone viral on social media. In the video, the actor is purportedly urging people to unite and support Imran Khan. The video also has the Pakistan flag, Imran Khan’s portrait, and text that reads “Free Imran Khan” overlaid on it.

A Twitter account shared the video with the caption, “Free now Imran Khan @akshaykumar Support #ImranKhan.”

Fact Check

NewMeter found that the video has been doctored by superimposing an audio clip supporting Imran Khan.

On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found the same video with different audio posted on Akshay Kumar’s fan page on 12 November 2020. In this video, Kumar can be seen endorsing a smart ECG device of a fitness company called GOQii.

Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search and found an extended version of the video published by GOQii’s YouTube channel on 22 November 2019. The video is titled “Akshay Kumar Talks About the GOQii Vital ECG and Heart Health.”

The description reads, “India’s Health Coach Akshay Kumar talks about the importance of heart health, ECG tests and the new GOQii VitalECG.”

A Hindustan Times article from 1 November 2020 also reported about Akshay Kumar endorsing start-ups like GOQii, Fau-G, PagarBook, and CarDekho.

From this, we conclude that the viral video has been doctored by digitally adding an audio clip to make it look like actor Akshay Kumar supports Imran Khan. Hence, the claim is false.

Earlier, NewsMeter had debunked similar doctored videos which showed Akshay Kumar speaking in support of Palestine.