Amitabh Bachchan reacts after Rashmika Mandanna's morphed video goes viral’; demands legal action

A recent video, which seemingly featured actor Rashmika Mandanna entering an elevator, took the internet by storm. But on closer examination, the clip turned out to be a deepfake – a digitally manipulated video.

The deception was so convincing that the video managed to garner millions of views on social media.

A journalist shared the video on X and raised concerns about the need for new legal and regulatory measures to combat the spread of fake content on the internet.

‘There is an urgent need for a legal and regulatory framework to deal with deepfake in India. You might have seen this viral video of actress Rashmika Mandanna on Instagram. But wait, this is a deepfake video of Zara Patel,’ he wrote on X.

‘From a deepfake POV, the viral video is perfect enough for ordinary social media users to fall for it. But if you watch the video carefully, you can see at (0:01) that when Rashmika (deepfake) was entering the lift, suddenly her face changes from the other girl to Rashmika,’ he added.

Later, veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan also batted for a legal action. Retweeting the journalist post, Big B wrote, ‘Yes this is a strong case for legal.’

Rashmika Mandanna starred with Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Goodbye’. She is yet to react to the video.

What is a deepfake video?

Deepfake is a type of synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness using AI.

Deepfakes can often be identified by unnatural facial expressions or movements, such as blinking too often or not enough, or movements that are too stiff or jerky. Deepfakes often have blurry or unfocused eyes, or eyes that don't match the person's head movements.

Amitabh Bachchan’s work front

Amitabh has been hosting ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. For the big screen, Big B seems to have begun work on his film with Rajinikanth. ‘Thalapathy 170’ marks Amitabh’s reunion with Rajinikanth after 33 years. The duo shot a few scenes in Mumbai recently.