Edited video of singer Arijit Singh is getting viral on social media? Read- Fact Check

A video is getting viral on social media sites regarding the singer Arijit Singh. 

Social media users are claiming that  Arijit Singh sang the ‘Gerua’ song of the film Dilwale during the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) on 15 December to send a political message to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee. 

By sharing this video a verified user  Amit Malviya captioned: “At the Kolkata Film Festival, Mamta Banerjee asked Arijit Singh to sing one of his favorites and he choose Rang de toh mohe Gerua.

It was an evening of realisations. From Mr. Bachchan to Arijit, who reminded Mamata Banerjee, in her backyard, that the future of Bengal is saffron”

Source: Twitter

Meanwhile, many other social media users are sharing a similar claim-

Source: Twitter

Source: Twitter

Source: Twitter

Source: Facebook

Fact Check:

To analyze the reality of the viral video the team of DFRAC first visited the official website of the Kolkata International Film Festival which conveys the live-stream event’s opening ceremony.

The event was just about 3 hours and 20 minutes long.

Source: YouTube

At 2:16:31 we can see that Arijit Singh was speaking on the stage. Arijit Singh appreciates Mamta Banerjee for organizing the festival and he felt cheerful to attend such an event.

After a small speech, a person from the stage is heard asking Arijit Singh to sing his old Bengali song ‘Bojhena Shey Bojhena’. He then sang the song and after that, he sang ‘Gerua’ to honor Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, who was also present at the event.

On further searches, we also found that the official Bengali news channel News18 Bangla uploaded the video where Arijit Singh takes the stage.

Source: YouTube

Conclusion: 

It is clear from the fact check of DFRAC that the viral video is edited. Arijit Singh sang the Gerua song to honor Shah Rukh Khan not to send a political message to West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee for the color saffron. Therefore, the claim made by social media users is edited and misleading.

DFRAC Editor

Digital Forensics, Research and Analytics Centre (DFRAC) is a non-partisan and independent media organisation which focuses on fact-checking and identifying hate speech. With the popularisation of the internet came the challenge of information overload and often times, our feeds are overpopulated with conflicting, incendiary and false information which is increasingly becoming difficult to ignore and not believe in

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