Fake videos peddled as visuals of Indian Idol judges getting emotional over singers' performances - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 6, 2024
Several videos are currently circulating on social media, showcasing the judges of the Indian Idol show becoming emotional after seeing the performances of various singers. Let’s examine the validity of these claims in each instance.
Update (06 February 2024):
Another video showcasing the Indian Idol judges’ astonishment at a group’s performance is circulating widely.
However, this video has been digitally created by incorporating clips featuring the judges’ reactions from season 12 of the popular Indian Idol show. These specific reactions were prompted when a contestant named ‘Jeli Keyi Tamin’ performed using both male and female voices.
Several YouTube users posted the video on their channels (here & here), and Jeli Keyi shared a reaction video for this performance on his official Instagram account. The clip features identical visuals of the judges’ reactions, confirming that the viral video was digitally produced by integrating Indian Idol clips into a random singing performance.
Update (09 January 2023):
Video 3:
Another video of a man allegedly performing a song praising Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and PM Narendra Modi in Indian Idol is doing the rounds on social media. Apart from this show’s regular judges and contestants, one can also see Yo Yo Yo Honey Singh applauding the singer in this video.
However, the viral video is an edited one. It was made by splicing up bits from the original TV show and adding them to a video of singer RJ Arvind performing the Yogi and Modi songs, mostly in front of a green screen. We can see the original version of the viral video uploaded on a YouTube channel named Rj Arvind Shorts. Therefore, the viral video does not show a singer performing the ‘Har Taraf Modi Yogi’ song in the Indian Idol.
Update (04 December 2023):
Video 2:
A video of Indian Idol judges crying while a singer sings ‘Tu jitni bhi Chahe Daulat Kama le’ is being widely shared as a real incident. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
The reverse image search of the viral video directed us to the original footage, which was uploaded on the SET India YouTube channel on 08 March 2021. This original video depicts the judges and the audience becoming emotional in response to a tribute song performed by Pawandeep for Major Mohit Sharma. The original footage was subsequently edited to create the impression that the judges were moved by the song performed by the singer in the viral video.
Published (11 August 2023):
Video 1:
A video of a singer allegedly performing like legendary playback singer Mohammad Rafi in the Indian Idol contest is doing the rounds on social media. Let’s verify this video through this claim.
Claim: A singer in the Indian Idol singing exactly like Mohammad Rafi.
Fact: This video contains two different types of clips. One is the actual footage from the Indian Idol show, and the other is footage of a boy named Md Shanu lip-synching to the original audio of the song ‘Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil ’ sung by Mohammed Rafi. Shanu did not perform this on the Indian Idol Stage, his footage is cross cut to the reaction shots of the judges and contestants sitting in the gallery to create an illusion that this is an actual Indian Idol performance. Hence, the claim made in the viral post is False.
Upon observing that the audio of this video sounds like an old recording (listen to the original recording of Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil here ), we suspected that this could be a fake video. Firstly, we performed a keyword search on the internet to see if this was actually a performance featured in Indian Idol, but we could not find any episode of the person featured in the viral video singing this song.
A further search revealed that this video was made by a young boy named Md Shanu, who hails from Rajasthan. This video was uploaded two weeks ago on a channel named ‘Busy Comedy Ltd · 4.7M views · 2 days ago …’ There are a few more similar videos (here and here) on this channel that feature Shanu performing on the Indian Idol stage.
But these videos do not show him actually performing in the Indian Idol; these are edited videos. In a typical episode of the Indian idol, the cheering sounds of the audience are audible, which is absent in the viral video.
Moreover, through further search on the internet, we found a video uploaded on the official channel of SET India, which proved that the viral video was fake. This is a video from the Indian Idol season 13; the reaction shots (here and here) of judges and contestants in this episode are the ones that are seen in the viral video. But, this video does not show the boy performing  ‘Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil ’; it shows singers Mani and Navdeep.
This evidence shows that Shanu has filmed a video of him lip-syncing to the original track of ‘Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil ’ and edited it in a way to make it look like it is a genuine Indian Idol performance. We also found out that there are multiple such videos (here, here, and here) featuring different people on YouTube, which show them lip-syncing to popular Bollywood songs.
These videos are edited to the reactions of the judges taken from the original Indian Idol episodes. Also, there are videos on YouTube on how one can make such videos using a greenscreen; watch them here and here to learn a very basic video on how such videos can be made. All this evidence is clear to conclude that the viral video is not a performance from a real Indian Idol episode.
To sum it up,  fake video is peddled as visuals of an Indian Idol contestant singing exactly like Mohammed Rafi.