Screengrab from Indian movie passed off as regional party member 'kidnapping' Hindu woman

Published on March 7, 2024 at 08:15
Updated on March 7, 2024 at 08:39
3 min read
By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India

A screenshot from an Indian movie has been shared thousands of times in social media posts with a false claim it shows a Hindu woman kidnapped in West Bengal by a member of the state's ruling party. The posts surfaced amid sexual harassment allegations against the party's members in February 2024, but the movie was released more than a decade ago in 2006.

"Sandeshkhali-West Bengal: A Hindu woman kidnapped by TMC goons. This jihadi goon is making a victory sign," reads in part the Hindi-language caption of a post sharing the screenshot here on X on February 16, 2024.

The post also contains a picture of a distressed woman standing next to a bare-chested man flashing a victory sign.

Screenshot of the false post taken on February 19, 2024

The false claim surfaced as protests erupted in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali village demanding the arrests of members of the state's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party over alleged sexual harassment and land grabs (archived link).

Supporters of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and India's National Commission for Women have accused the TMC and the West Bengal government of being complicit in crimes against women in the area.

Indian news website Hindustan Times reported on February 29, 2024 that TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan has been arrested for the case (archived link).

The screengrab has been shared with the same false claim elsewhere on Facebook here, here, here, and on social media platform X here and here.

However, the claim is false. The picture actually shows a scene from a Telugu-language movie released in 2006.

Movie scene

A Google reverse image search found a video uploaded on YouTube on September 7, 2019 showing the same scene at the 2:14 mark (archived link).

The three-minute, 18-second video is titled "Pratighaat Scene".

Below is a screenshot comparison of the screengrab shared in false posts (left) and the video uploaded on YouTube (right):

Screenshot comparison of the screengrab shared in false posts (left) and the video uploaded on YouTube (right)

A keyword search found that "Pratighat (Revenge)" is a Hindi-language dubbed version of the Telugu movie "Vikramarkudu" released theatrically in 2006 (archived link).

AFP has reviewed versions of the movie available on streaming platforms and found the scene appears at approximately the 1:27:33 timestamp.

The person passed off as a TMC politician in the viral post is actually Amit Tiwari, who plays a villain in the film (archived link).

AFP cannot find credible media reports that Tiwari is linked to the TMC.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail