Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
A video has recently gone viral with social media users claiming it to be of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari dancing to ’Besharam Rang’ from Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film, Pathaan. Both Bhutto and the song have been in the news recently, with his comments on PM Narendra Modi inviting backlash and the song’s sequences sparking protests across the country.
The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here, here and here.
Fact check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Bilawal Bhutto dance”, which led us to multiple news reports, seen here and here, on the viral video, stating that the man in the video is a lookalike of the Pakistani politician.
The news reports led us to a video, dated January 12, 2023, uploaded on Pakistani actor Inaya Khan’s Instagram account. The video offers a different angle of the viral dance and names the male dancer as Mehroz Baig, who has the same videos in his Instagram account. The photos in his account confirm that Baig is the same man in the viral video. The same video was uploaded on Inaya Khan’s Youtube channel.
We learnt that Baig is a student of Iqra University in Karachi and that the dance performance was part of Inaya’s sister’s wedding, which has been reported by Pakistani news outlets.
We reached out to Baig, who confirmed that it was him in the video. “I performed this dance this month, on the 8th of January, at the Sunset Club, Karachi, along with my best friend. She is a Pakistani actor, Inaya Khan, and we danced together at her sister’s wedding. There has been a lot of confusion all over the internet considering my resemblance to Bhutto. I am a 25-year-old Bachelor of Media Studies student at Iqra University and I am not a professional dancer. It is just something I do as a hobby.”
Conclusion
Video of Pakistani Instagrammer’s dance with actor falsely claimed to be of Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari dancing to ‘Besharam Rang’.
Result: False
Sources
Video uploaded on Inaya Khan’s Instagram account
News report, January 22, 2023, 24 Digital
Conversation with Mehroz Baig
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
