Malayalam actors’ Eid-themed video doctored to claim it’s an advertisement promoting an interfaith relationship

Context:

An Instagram reel created by two Malayalam actors on the occasion of Eid 2023 has gone viral on social media. The video ends with a display of Skybag suitcases owned by baggage company VIP. Social media users began trending hashtags sharing the video, claiming it preaches "love jihad" in the guise of an Eid greeting advertisement. The video depicts a love story of a Muslim man and a Hindu woman. The Muslim man in the video can be seen removing the bindi of a Hindu woman and covering her head with a dupatta.

However, we have found that the original video has been doctored and used to falsely claim that VIP had released an advertisement promoting conversion.

In Fact:

The video featured Malayalam actors Vishnu K Vijayan and Sumi Rashik. A reverse image search using visuals from the viral video revealed that the original video was posted on Instagram by actor Vishnu K Vijayan (account name: thereal_vishnu_) on April 22, 2023. Although the actor has removed the original video, snapshots from the video shoot are still available on his Instagram profile. The original video does not show any suitcases in the end. The video of the two actors is, in fact, a recreation of the song 'Vathikkalu Vellaripravu' from the movie Sufiyum Sujatayum. The video was created on the occasion of Eid 2023. A sudden abrupt switch at the end of the video displaying the Skybags suitcases indicated that the video might have been edited.

The original advertisement that was published on October 31, 2015, is around 2 minutes long and does not show any interfaith couple. The original advertisement can be viewed here.

After the video went viral with misleading claims, VIP issued a statement calling the video edited and manipulated. “VIP Industries Limited would like to clarify that a certain fake, malicious and mischievous advertisement is being circulated on various social media platforms and micro blogging sites. The creator of this advertisement has unlawfully used VIP and Skybags brand names and attempted to tarnish the image of our company and brand names,” the company said in a statement shared to its official Twitter handle on April 24, 2023.

“VIP Industries has not issued this advertisement and has no connection with the person who has put this advertisement. VIP Industries has filed a police complaint for unauthorised usage of its name and trademarks,” the statement added.

It is to be noted that ‘love jihad’ is a conspiracy theory propagated by right-wing extremists to claim that Hindu women are coerced by Muslim men into marriage, with the aim of converting them to Islam. However, there is no evidence or official data to back this claim. In February 2020, during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, the then Minister of State for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy, said that there is no such case of ‘love jihad’ that has been officially reported in the country. Reddy, in a reply, said, "The term ‘Love Jihad’ is not defined under the extant laws. No such case of ‘Love Jihad’ has been reported by any of the central agencies."

In 2020, the conspiracy also influenced several state elections. The concept was deployed to many social media groups for political propaganda. Many different narratives have been debunked in the past by Logically Facts .

The Verdict:

A video of a recreation of a song from a Malayalam movie has been doctored and shared to be an advertisement of VIP’s Skybags suitcases. The suitcase company has called this video fake and malicious. Thus, we mark this claim as false.