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.

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.

(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)."

• 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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