Fact-Check: Man Playing Garba in This Video Is Not PM Narendra Modi!

The video shows Vikas Mahante, PM Modi's lookalike, during Diwali festivities in London.

A video of PM Modi's lookalike is being shared to claim that it shows the prime minister performing garba.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a group of people, comprising one man and several women playing garba is being shared on social media.

The claim: The video is being shared to claim that it shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi playing garba during Navratri festivities.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X (Formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

The Quint received a query for this video's verification on its WhatsApp tipline. It is also being shared on YouTube.

(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No. The video shows Vikas Mahante, PM Modi's lookalike, at a Diwali event in London.

How did we find out?: We divided the video into multiple keyframes using InVID, a video verification tool, and ran a reverse image search on some of them.

• This led us to a reply to a post on X, which carried a screenshot resembling the video in the claim.

• The screenshot looked similar to one of Instagram's stories and showed the username 'vikas_mahante'.

• Taking a cue from this, we looked for Vikas Mahante's Instagram account.

• Here, we saw a reel which was shared as a video of a Diwali celebration in London.

• In this video, Mahante was seen wearing the same outfit as the one in the claim.

In both videos, Mahante is seen in a long beige kurta and brown waistcoat.

(Source: Facebook/Instagram/Altered by The Quint)

• In another comparison, one can see the same people in both videos.

One can see women dressed in the same colourful outfits in both videos.

(Source: Facebook/Instagram/Altered by The Quint)

• Mahante's appearance is very similar to that of the prime minister, so much so that his only acting credits on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) page are of him playing PM Modi in films.

• One can see the resemblance between the two in this image.

PM Modi and Vikas Mahante look similar, but not the same.

(Source: X/Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

Speaking to fact-checking organisation BOOM, Mahante confirmed that it was indeed him in the viral video. He told BOOM that the video was from a Diwali event he had attended in London on 4 and 5 November.

Conclusion: A video showing Vikas Mahante, PM Modi's lookalike, dancing at a Navratri event in Mumbai is being shared as one of the prime minister dancing.

(Note: This article has been updated to include Vikas Mahante's interaction with BOOM, confirming that it was him in the viral video. An older version of this report incorrectly stated that Mahante was at a Navratri event in Mumbai. The error is regretted.)

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