Video of a Woman Dancing on Old Bollywood Song Misidentified as Waheeda Rehman

This video shows a dancer Sunila Ashok, and not Waheeda Rehman, the actor.

Fact-check: A senior woman dancing in a viral video was misidentified as the actor, Waheeda Rehman.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a woman dancing to an old Hindi song, Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai, is going viral on social media to claim that it shows veteran Bollywood actor Waheeda Rehman.

• The claim applauds Rehman for dancing so gracefully, even at the age of 85.

• It also links it with the recent announcement about the actor being presented with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

Is that really Waheeda Rehman?: No, it does not show Rehman dancing in the viral video.

• The video shows Sunila Ashok, a teacher who became a dancer after retirement.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a relevant keyword search on Google, which led us to the same dance video on YouTube.

• The video was titled "Mayookha - Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai (Dance Cover)" and was shared on 2 January 2022.

• This was uploaded by a channel named 'Mayookha' run by Sunila Ashok.

• The description of the video stated that Anoushka Sachdeva, her dancing instructor, choreographed this dance.

• Taking a cue, we checked Ashok's Instagram page and found that the same dance was uploaded on her account on Monday, 26 September.

• The caption stated that she was misidentified as Waheeda Rehman in this dance video.

• She had also put up a story of the same video with a caption that said, "AN HONOR TO BE MISTAKEN FOR WAHEEDA RAHMAN (sic)."

Sunila Ashok was was misidentified as Waheeda Rehman.

(Source: IG/Screenshot)

• We found a video shared by Ashok about a reality show called Superstar after Retirement by Bajaj Allianz Life.

• The video showed Ashok talking about how she resumed dancing after her retiring from her job of teaching.

Sunila Ashok dismissed the viral claims: We reached out to Ashok who told us that she has been mistaken for Rehman in the viral video.

• "I am honoured to be compared to the legendary Waheeda Rahman. I am a huge fan of her dancing and acting, so I was thrilled when my video went viral. I launched my youtube channel, Mayookha and this song was perfect to convey my thoughts about my channel and the new journey I had embarked upon," she added.

(Note: The story has been updated to add Sunila Ashok's response.)

Conclusion: The video of a woman dancing in a viral video has been shared by people, misidentifying the lady as the actor Waheeda Rehman.

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