Doctored video shows VIP Skybags ad promoting ‘Love Jihad’
NewsMeter found that two different clips have been merged to mislead the people.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 27 April 2023 5:58 PM IST
(Source: Facebook)
A video showing a Hindu-Muslim couple reportedly in an ad for VIP Skybags has gone viral on social media. Those sharing the video claim that the advertisement is promoting “love jihad.” (Archive)
(Source: Facebook)
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Fact Check
NewsMeter found that two different clips have been merged to mislead the people. The first clip shows actors Sumi Rashik and Vishnu K. Vijayan recreating the song “Vathikkalu Vellaripravu” from the Malayalam film ‘Sufiyum Sujatayum’ which was released in 2020. The second clip shows a 2015 VIP Skybags advertisement.
We ran a keyword search and found a tweet by Skyabgs from 24 April 2023. In an official statement, VIP Industries Limited said that the company has not released any such advertisement. They described the viral video as “fake, malicious and mischievous advertisement.” It also said the company has filed a police complaint for unauthorised usage of its name and trademarks.
An article by The Free Press Journal from 25 April also reported the clarification issued by VIP and identified the man in the video as Malayalam actor Vishnu Vijayan.
Taking this as a cue, we looked for Vishnu Vijayan’s social media pages and found several images of him with co-actor Sumi Rashik on Instagram. The images show them wearing the same attire as seen in the viral video.
On Sumi Rashik’s Instagram account, we found a longer version of the viral video with better resolution posted on 20 April. This video does not show VIP ad in the end.
From this, it is evident that the video is a recreation of scenes of the song “Vathikkalu Vellaripravu” from the Malayalam film ‘Sufiyum Sujatayum.’ The original song features actors Dev Mohan and Aditi Rao Hydari.
Further, we checked Skybags’ YouTube channel to find the clip added to the viral video. The clip appears at the 40-second mark in an advertisement published by the channel on 25 October 2015. The ad features Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan.
We also noticed that the viral video carries the watermark of “Puffington Ghost.” On searching for it on Twitter and Facebook, we could not find any such account or page. We searched for the same on the archive.is and found a Facebook page by the same name. In the bio section, the archive shows that it had described itself as a ‘satire/parody’ page.
From this, we conclude that two unrelated videos have been merged to create the viral VIP Skybags ad. Hence, the claim is false.
