Rashmika Mandanna Deepfake Video: ‘Shame on people who...’, Mrunal Thakur encourages others to speak up

Actor Mrunal Thakur has lauded Rashmika Mandanna for speaking out against a viral deepfake video of herself that had gone viral on social media platforms. She also encouraged others to speak against such situations.

“Shame on people who resort to such things, it shows that there's no conscience left at all in such people. Thank you rashmika_mandanna for speaking up, and for addressing this issue that so far we have seen glimpses of but a lot of us chose to remain silent,” Mrunal wrote on Instagram. 

She further said, “Every day there are morphed, edited videos of female actors floating around on the internet zooming into inappropriate body parts. Where are we heading as a community, and as a society?”

“We may be actresses in the 'limelight' but at the end of the day, each one of us is human. Why aren't we talking about it? Don't remain silent, now is not the time,” the actor added. 

Rashmika Mandanna's deepfake video goes viral

Actor Rashmika Mandanna took to social media on Monday to express concern over a "deepfake video" of her that went viral over the last weekend. In a post on X, the actor said, "Something like this is honestly, extremely scary not only for me but also for each one of us who today is vulnerable to so much harm because of how technology is being misused."

Her reaction came a day after a video showing a woman, with Rashmika's face, went viral on social media. The woman in the unconfirmed video was seen entering a lift wearing a black swimsuit.

She said the community needs to address this issue of the misuse of technology with an "urgency before more of us are affected by such identity theft".

"I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online," Rashmika Mandanna said, adding how she could not have tackled the situation had this happened in her school days.

"Today, as a woman and as an actor, I am thankful for my family, friends, and well-wishers who are my protection and support system. But if this happened to me when I was in school or college, I genuinely can’t imagine how could I ever tackle this," she added.