Fake video of Virat Kohli and journalist Jiya Sharma used to promote betting app

By: Soham Shah
April 3 2024

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Video showing Virat Kohli promoting ‘Aviator app’. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim? 

A video of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli, and Jiya Sharma, an anchor with the Hindi news channel Zee News, purportedly promoting a betting app called 'Aviator' is going viral on social media, with one Facebook sharing it garnering over 34,000 likes and 1,900 comments. The video starts with Sharma saying that the app can make you a crorepati (someone with crores of rupees), followed by interviews of people endorsing the app. The video ends with Kohli saying that one can easily earn over Rs 50,000 per day using this app. 

Facebook video showing Virat Kohli and Jiya Sharma promoting the ‘Aviator' betting app. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the truth?

We found that the video is a deepfake, and the original clips of Kohli and Sharma show that they were not talking about or promoting any betting app.  

Jiya Sharma video

We noticed that the footage had a Zee News watermark at the top right corner, with journalist Jiya Sharma anchoring the news show from which the clip is taken. Using this information, we located Zee News's original report titled "Sandeshkhali Case News | West Bengal President Rule LIVE Updates: BJP ने ममता को फंसाया! | Breaking" on their official YouTube channel. This video was live-streamed on the platform on February 22. We identified the exact scene that has been used in the viral video at timestamp 1:05:10. It shows Sharma picking up an object kept on the table just like in the viral clip. In the original video, she talks about the recent events at Sandeshkhali village of West Bengal and does not say anything about the 'Aviator' app. ( Women in Sandeshkhali protested for weeks recently against the alleged atrocities committed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shajahan Sheikh). 

(Source: Zee News/YouTube)

Virat Kohli video

Using reverse image search, we also found Kohli's original clip used in the viral video on his Instagram account. Posted on May 6, 2022, this video was an ad for the luggage brand American Tourister. Kohli neither mentions nor promotes any betting app in the original video. 

India TV watermark

The viral video also has an India TV watermark towards the left corner, which was most likely added to convince the viewer that the clip is an authentic clip shared on TV. But neither Sharma's nor Kohli's clips are from India TV, indicating that the news channel's watermark was added later. It is clear now that Sharma's clip is from a Zee News video, and we can indeed see a portion of the channel's logo in the top right corner of the viral video.

Zee News logo visible in the viral ad. (Source: Screenshot/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

Unnatural, mechanical voice and lip movements

Sharma's voice in the video has features similar to the reporter's real voice, but they are not the same. Her lip movements also do not match what she is supposedly saying in the ad. Kohli's voice is almost the same as his natural voice, but here, too, the lip movements do not match perfectly with what he is supposedly saying. 

The lip sync in both cases appears unnatural, indicative of AI manipulation. The voices of the random people shown interviewed in the video also appear mechanical and unnatural. 

What does expert analysis say?

Logically Facts used a deepfake detection tool called 'Itisaar,' developed by a team of experts led by Mayank Vatsa, a professor of computer science at IIT Jodhpur. The tool concluded that the video is fake with a confidence level of 0.972 (with 1 being the maximum), providing further confirmation that it is not a genuine video. 

A Google search for the 'Aviator App' leads to a website that lets you download an Android or iPhone APK. Downloading such APKs from unknown sources could be harmful as it can infect your phone with malware and viruses.

 The verdict

We mark the video as fake as it has been most likely created using AI technology to show that Virat Kohli and Jiya Sharma promoted a betting application that claims to provide high returns within a short period.