Claim: Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan has requested his fans to support former prime minister Imran Khan.
Fact: A clip from an old interaction of Roshan with his fans has been doctored. The actor has not actually made any comments regarding Imran Khan or voiced his support for the politician.
Fact or Fiction?
On 11 May 2023, Facebook user Sohag Ali Zaman shared a video with the claim that actor Hrithik Roshan has requested his fans to support Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan following his arrest on 9 May.
The caption of the post, which has now been deleted, reads, “Hrithik Roshan stand for Imran Khan Niazi.”
In the 15-second video, Roshan can be heard saying, “I know who Imran Khan is. All my fans no matter where they are from must raise their voice for Imran Khan out of humanity.”
Soch Fact Check ascertained that the video was digitally altered. We first noticed that the lips of Hrithik Roshan do not fully synchronise with the audio, which is likely overlaid on the video.
We conducted an analysis of the video’s key frames using InVID, a video verification tool and Yandex results turned up a post from 9 January 2023. The post carried images from the viral clip on VK, a Russian online social media and social networking service, with the caption, “Ритик Рошан общался с поклонниками в Zoom Meet сегодня [Hrithik Roshan chatted with fans on Zoom Meet today]”.
Soch Fact Check searched Google with relevant keywords “Hrithik Roshan Zoom answer session with fans” and came across a video posted on 12 January 2023. It is titled, “Exclusive: Birthday Fan Chat – Hrithik Roshan Shares Sweet Message For his Fans | Himesh Mankad ||.”
Responding to a question about what message Roshan has for his fans, he responded between the 1:08 to 1:23 timestamp, “Thank you, thank you for being there. I do not take them (his fans) for granted, I do not take you guys for granted. I know that I need to do good work and better work so that I always deserve the love.”
The actor’s response to this question has been altered to add a different voiceover that suggests he has expressed support for Imran Khan.
We also compared the keyframes from the two clips and have made a visual below that shows the keyframe at the timestamp 1:23 with that of the viral video.
We also found a longer 42-minute 30 seconds video of the actor’s interview on YouTube from 9 January.
The claim was debunked by fact-checking organisations including The Quint, BOOM FactCheck, Newsmeter and others.
Virality:
The claim was found here, here, here and here on YouTube.
The video was shared here, here, here, here and here on TikTok.
Conclusion: An old video of Hrithik Roshan chatting with fans on his birthday has been doctored to make it seem like he extended his support for Imran Khan. The Bollywood actor has not made any such statements.