A video showing a young man marrying an older woman has gone viral on social media.
The claim: Several media organisations such as Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, Times Now Navbharat, ABP News, among others have shared the video to claim that it shows a 21-year-old man marrying a 52-year-old woman.
(Note: Swipe right to view all claims.)
An archive of this post can be seen here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
(Archives of more posts on the internet sharing the same claim can be seen here and here.)
What is the truth?: The video is a scripted one. We found the same man in many other videos published on prank pages, with some carrying disclaimers that the video was for "entertainment purposes only".
How did we find out?: We found a 10-minute version of the video on a Facebook page 'Desi Chhora k vlogs', where it was published on 20 November.
In this video, people are heard talking about recording the video while the duo says that they had intentionally called people so the video of their marriage can be shared as much as possible.
In the comments under this video, several users mentioned that the video was "scripted," and that the man was seen in other videos of the same kind.
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Users said it was scripted in the comments.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
Some also shared screenshots of some of the other videos where the man was seen, along with names of Facebook pages.
Taking a cue from this, we took a look at the pages that the other videos were uploaded on.
Same man, different videos: In one of these videos, where the man is getting married to another woman, we saw a disclaimer which mentioned that the video was made for "entertainment purposes only".
The video was shared with a disclaimer that it was made for "entertainment purposes only."
(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)
We also saw him in another video on a Facebook page called 'Helping Hands,' which said that the page featured "fictional videos".
(Note: Swipe right to view both images.)
The same man was seen in a video by another Facebook page.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
He also featured in another video published on Facebook page 'Dheeraj Singh prank.'
The same man was seen in a video published on a "prank" page.
(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)
We found videos featuring the same man on a YouTube channel.
(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)
In the description of the videos, it was mentioned that the channel is run by one 'Paresh Sathaliya' and the link to his other social media profiles were given.
We then scanned through these profiles and found a video on Instagram which showed the same woman (as seen in the viral clip) getting married to another man. The story of this video was also the same.
Same woman, similar story, another video.
(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)
We have debunked several such scripted videos in the past which have gone viral with misleading claims.
Conclusion: The video is a staged one. While we could not identify the original creator of the viral video, the man in the video is an actor who has appeared in several staged videos.
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