Video of Hindu man thrashed for forcibly applying Holi colors on woman is scripted

What is the claim?

A video is being shared online to claim that a man was beaten up for forcibly applying colors to a woman in a restaurant. The video, which first shows the man applying Holi ( a Hindu festival) colors to a woman wearing a saffron shawl, was shared to X (formerly Twitter) with a caption in Hindi that translates to, "Muslims are just infamous, no one likes to apply color forcibly, no matter which caste, religion, or community they belong to. See in this video how the 'Bhakts' were beaten." 

The claim surfaced around Holi (which was celebrated on March 25 this year) at a time when many videos of revelers forcibly applying colors to Muslim men and women during the festival were shared online. The viral claim can also be interpreted as people from the Muslim community thrashing a Hindu man after he applied color forcefully on a woman. Archived versions of posts sharing the viral claim can be found here and here.

Screenshot of the claim circulating online. (Source:X/Modified By Logically Facts) 

However, a scripted video has been shared as a real incident. 

What did we find?

We conducted a reverse image search and traced the video to the Instagram user 'official_athlete_soniya'. This post was a collaborative post shared by Indian wrestler Dalip Singh Rana, also known as The Great Khali, on his Instagram account. 

The caption on this original video (archived here), which was shared on March 23, two days before the Hindu festival of Holi, states, 'Happy Holi to all, Celebrate Holi Carefully.' We can see that the woman in the video, wearing a saffron shawl, is the user Soniya herself.

Two days later, this user shared a screenshot (archived here) of her Instagram posts, where we can see the cover image of the reel, with a caption thanking people after it crossed 23 million views on Instagram. However, in this post, the caption states, "Scripted video. This Videos Entertainment Purpose Only (sic)."

Screenshot of Sonia’s Instagram post (Source:Instagram/official_athlete_soniya)

Meanwhile, wrestler Khali also uploaded the viral clip to his Instagram account again (archived here) two days later, this time clarifying that the video had been made for entertainment purposes only. 

We have contacted the user Sonia to know more details and additional context about the video. Her response will be added to this check once we receive it. 

The verdict

A scripted video has been shared as a real incident that took place on Holi. The user who uploaded it said that the video was scripted and made for entertainment purposes. Therefore, we mark this claim as false.