Altered video of actors Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan supporting Imran Khan goes viral

By: Ishita Goel
May 16 2023

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Context

On May 9, 2023, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was arrested on charges of corruption. BBC News reported that Khan was taken into custody for not cooperating in an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption. Since his arrest, Khan has been indicted in another graft case, relating to alleged financial help from a land developer in establishing the Al Qadir University in Pakistan. Khan is out on bail for two weeks.

There were nationwide protests following the arrest, and social media witnessed a surge in false images, videos, and narratives. There has been a circulation of videos expressing support for the former prime minister, including that of multiple actors purportedly expressing solidarity.

One such Facebook video allegedly shows Indian actor Hrithik Roshan in light of Khan's arrest. The same clip of the actor was shared in a longer video which also featured clips of actors Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar. 

However, these videos have been altered.  

In Fact

We noted that in the viral clip, none of the actors' lip movements matched the audio; further, their voices and accents were all different.

Using reverse image search, we found a longer version of Roshan's clip on YouTube dated January 10, 2023, captioned "Hrithik Roshan Birthday Special Fan Interaction." YouTube user 'Hrithik Rules' uploaded the video showing the actor interacting with fans. However, at no point in the video did the actor speak about Khan. Similarly, another YouTube user, shared a video on the YouTube channel 'Hrithik Roshan Expressions', which matched the viral video. He wrote, "Hrithik Roshan Expressions while Connecting To Zoom Meeting With Fans." 

A video of Roshan interacting with his fans in January 2023 has been altered to claim he spoke in support of Khan.

We found the original version of the clip of Salman Khan on his Instagram page, dated April 21, 2023. The actor posted a video captioned, "See you on April 24 at Float Dubai! Exclusively for VKR Entertainment You can't miss the biggest EID Celebration!" He too, did not speak about Khan.

Logically Facts previously has debunked the viral video of Akshay Kumar 'expressing support.' In the original video, posted in 2019, Kumar is seen endorsing a fitness company called GOQii.

We matched the background and the attire of every actor from the viral video to their original videos. However, in the viral video, voiceovers were overlaid to the actors' audio.

The Verdict

Clips from unrelated videos by the actors are being shared with an edited voiceover to claim they are supporting the former prime minister. There is no evidence that they have ever publicly supported Khan. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.