Video shows behind the scenes footage of short film, not real case of police brutality in India
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 16, 2023 at 11:34
- 4 min read
- By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
"Don't know where this video is from, but strict action should be taken against these brutal policemen," reads part of the Hindi-language caption to a video shared here on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 6, 2023.
"The government has instilled so much hatred in people that they have descended into savagery."
The video, which was shared at least 2,000 times before being deleted, appears to show a group of men, including uniformed policemen, pulling out a person's fingernails while they scream in pain.
Content warning
Police brutality is common in India. In April, an officer was suspended after several men accused him of breaking detainees' teeth, while also saying they had been beaten and one of them sexually assaulted while in custody, according to Indian digital news outlet The News Minute (archived links here and here).
The same video was also shared alongside similar claims on X and on Facebook here and here.
Comments on the posts suggest some users believed the video showed a genuine example of police brutality.
"These are not police, they are rioters and hate-mongering dogs," wrote one user.
Another said: "These beasts should be punished as badly as possible."
But the video in fact shows actors filming a scene for a short film.
Scripted scene
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a film uploaded to YouTube here on July 31, 2023 (archived link).
The Hindi-language film was shared on the channel of Vipin Pandey Entertainment Production, and is titled, "The Punishment of Friendship".
The 11-minute, 57-second long film starts with text that says: "This is a story based on a real event."
A scene at the 10-minute, 30-second mark of the film corresponds to the video being falsely shared on social media, albeit shot from a different angle.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and the corresponding scene from the film on YouTube (right), showing the same actor wearing a red shirt appearing to pull out the victim's fingernails while a uniformed policeman holds his arm still:
Content warning
A subsequent search led to a clip posted on the creator's Facebook page that is the same as the footage being falsely shared on social media (archived link).
The caption on the Facebook video reads: "Coming soon my new video so please support my YouTube channel."
Below is a screenshot comparison of a frame from one of the falsely shared videos (left) and the corresponding frame from the video posted by the film's creator on Facebook (right):
Content warning
The film's producer and director Vipin Pandey, who also played the man being tortured, told AFP the claims made about the video on social media are "totally wrong".
"I made that video for entertainment. I don't know why people are sharing it misleadingly. I have even shared that clip saying it’s made by me," he said on August 8.
"I have done good acting, maybe that's why people are falling for it," he added.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
