The video featured Congress party's logo with the text 'Vote for Nyay, Vote for Congress'.
Several social media users shared a video of Bollywood actor Aamir Khan purportedly talking about two types of 'guarantees' given to the citizens - 'good and bad' - to claim that he endorsed Congress party's campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. In its investigation, the PTI Fact Check Desk found that the audio of a 10-year-old video of the actor was overlaid with a fake AI-generated audio to give an impression that Khan endorsed a political party. The digitally altered video was shared on social media with false claims.
During the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP and Congress have focused their respective campaigns around their manifestos - 'Modi Ki Guarantee' and 'Nyay Patra' - respectively. The social media posts carrying Khan's edited video are indicated towards the guarantees given by these two parties to the citizens.
The Desk recently debunked a similar digitally altered video of Aamir Khan, which was shared on social media with the similar claim of endorsing a political party.
The fact-check titled 'PTI Fact Check: No, Aamir Khan didn't endorse any political party; edited video with AI voice clone shared on social media' can be read here.
Claim
An Instagram user shared on April 15 a video of actor Aamir Khan talking about two types of guarantees given to the citizens for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The caption of the post read, "Aamir khan ne 2024 Election Ko le kar kya kaha, Ki Abki baar Congress ko vote do #news #aamirkhan #election #bollywood"
Here is a link and archive link to the post and below is a screenshot of the same:
Khan, in the video, can be heard saying, "There are two types of guarantees in these elections - good and bad. The bad news is that once again, 'jumle waade' (catchphrase promises) have been made to ruin your life. But the good news is that this time, there are '5 Nyay' (five justices) for your development."
Moving forward, the video featured Congress party's logo with the text 'Vote for Nyay, Vote for Congress'.
Investigation
Starting the investigation, the Desk watched the viral video and noticed a lip-sync issue in it. We then uploaded the viral video to the InVid Tool Search and received a few keyframes. Further, scanning those keyframes through Google Lens, the Desk found a Twitter post shared on April 15, which carried the same video.
Here is the link and archive link and below is a screenshot of the same:
On further scanning the Google Lens search results, the Desk found that a similar video was uploaded on YouTube from the official channel of 'Satyamev Jayate', a chat show hosted by Aamir Khan, which was telecasted on Star Plus channel.
Here is the link to the video titled, "Satyamev Jayate S1 | Episode 13 | The Idea of India | Liberty (Hindi)", which was published on August 30, 2016, and below is a screenshot of the same:
The description of the video read: "Stay tuned to the new season of Satyamev Jayate, starting March 2, every Sunday, 11 AM onwards only on STAR Plus."
The Desk noticed that Khan's outfit and the red glowing light at the bottom of the video was the same as in the viral video. Below is a combination image, comparing the visuals of the two videos:
The Desk listened to this 40-second video and noticed that the actor's statement differed from what it was in the viral video. He can be heard saying that that he will be coming again for a new season with five episodes, which will be telecasted on Sundays.
An English translation of what Khan said in the promo video, reads: "Friends I have two news for you, one is good and other is bad. The bad news is that I am coming back again to spoil your Sunday. But the good news is that I will only spoil your 5 Sundays..... only 5 Every Sunday of March".
Taking a cue from this, the Desk scanned the official website of Satyamev Jayate and found that the above-mentioned video was the promo for Season 2, Episode 1, titled 'Fighting Rape'.
Here is the link to the official website and below is a screenshot of the same
The IMDb website, however, mentions that the first episode of Season 2 was telecast on March 5, 2014. Below is a screenshot of the same:
Subsequently, the Desk concluded that a fake AI-generated audio was superimposed on an old video, to make it look like the actor endorsed a political party.
CLAIM
Actor Aamir Khan endorsed the Congress' campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
FACT
The original video dated back to 2014, which was digitally altered using an AI voice clone to make it look like the actor made a political endorsement.
CONCLUSION
Several social media users shared a video of Bollywood actor Aamir Khan in which he can be heard endorsing Congress party's campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls while warning people against 'jumlas' (catchphrases). In its investigation, the Desk found that a 10-year-old video was digitally altered using AI voice clone to make it look like the actor made a political endorsement. The edited video was shared on social media with a false claim.
(This story was originally published by PTI Fact Check, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)