Viral video claiming to show actor Kajol changing clothes on camera is a deepfake

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has paved the way for an alarming increase in mis/disinformation on social media. AI programs like MidJourney and other face-swapping tools now allow for the creation of compelling deepfakes in a very short processing time. Over the last year, deepfake videos and images of political leaders, celebrities, and people, in general, have created an uproar on social media. 

What is the claim?

A video has been circulating on social media claiming to show Bollywood actor Kajol changing her clothes in front of the camera.

Several users shared the video on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, making the same claim. One such post on Facebook has garnered over 5,200 likes, 108 comments, and 90 shares at the time of writing. The caption shared with one such post reads: "#kajoldevgan dress changing." An archived version of one such viral post can be found here.

The viral posts on Facebook and Instagram. (Source: Instagram/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this video does not feature Kajol and is a deepfake version of a video posted by a U.K.-based fashion influencer.

What did we find? 

We carefully reviewed the viral video and noticed a glitch that led us to believe that the video had been manipulated using digital tools. Towards the end of the video, a glitch can be seen when the woman is wearing her shoes, as one eye is looking upwards while the other is looking downwards (a signature mark of AI-manipulated videos is that the eyes look wonky in transition frames).

A screenshot taken from the viral video. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

Then, a reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to a news report that featured the original video. The information was published by The U.S. Sun on June 7, 2023. According to the report, the name of the woman in the original video is Rosie Breen, and the clip was first uploaded on TikTok. 

Breen is a fashion influencer with more than 5,84,000 followers on TikTok. Her bio on the social media platform reads, "Midsized Fashion + other bits 🦋☔️🍂💐🩷." 

We also tracked down the original version of the viral video on TikTok, dated June 5, 2023, which is 0:27 minutes long and shows Breen changing into three different outfits. The prices of the outfits have been added to the video's caption. The same video was uploaded on Breen's Instagram account on June 3, 2023. Her bio on her influencer account on Instagram reads, "🌎 U.K. - Indian Irish midsized gal."

The manipulated video is 0:14 minutes long and has been taken from the 0:02 to 0:11 timeframe of the original video. Apart from being digitally altered, the cropped 0:09-minute clip from the original video was also slowed down to make the 0:14-minute long viral video. 

We compared the viral video with the original one and found that Breen's face has been swapped with Kajol's, likely using an AI-powered face-swapping software.

A comparison between the viral video and the original video. (Source: Facebook/TikTok/Modified by Logically Facts) 

The comparison between the original video and the viral video shows that the woman in the video is not Kajol.

We further noticed that Breen, who posted the original video, has uploaded several similar videos of herself changing outfits on her TikTok and Instagram accounts. 

This viral video surfaced just a few days after a similar deepfake video, purportedly showing actor Rashmika Mandanna, went viral and was fact-checked by several organizations, including Logically Facts.

The verdict

A deepfake video is being shared as Bollywood actor Kajol changing clothes in front of the camera. The viral video was extracted from a TikTok video showing a fashion influencer changing into three outfits and was digitally manipulated, likely using AI tools, to swap out her face. Therefore, we have marked this claim as fake.