“Scary”: Rashmika Mandanna On Deepfake Video

Addressing her viral deepfake video online, actress Rashmika Mandanna responded that it is “extremely scary” not only for her but for everyone. Taking to social media on Monday, Ms Mandanna wrote: “Something like this is honestly, extremely scary not only for me, but also for each one of us who today is vulnerable to so much harm because of how technology is being misused.”

She began her statement by saying that “I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online.”

I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online.

Something like this is honestly, extremely scary not only for me, but also for each one of us who today is vulnerable to so much harm because of how technology is being misused.…

— Rashmika Mandanna (@iamRashmika) November 6, 2023

The actress extended gratitude towards her family, friends and well wishers for being her protection and support system. “But if this happened to me when I was in school or college, I genuinely can”t imagine how could I ever tackle this,” she added.

She ends her statement requesting call for action: “We need to address this as a community and with urgency before more of us are affected by such identity theft.”

In the circulated deepfake video a woman entering the elevator was shown and her face has been morphed into that of actress”s. Abhishek Kumar, a journalist, in his twitter handle revealed that the original woman in the video was a British Indian named Zara Patel.  Besides, Mr Kumar shared the original and fake video on X account and underlined the importance for new legal and regulatory measures to address deepfake in India.

Sharing Mr Kumar”s video, Amitabh Bachchan, Ms Mandanna”s co-acter in Goodbye wrote on X: “this is a strong case for legal.”