On 06 April 2025, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray launched the “Mi Marathi” campaign, urging supporters to slap those refusing to speak Marathi in the state. Following this, MNS workers attacked several individuals and defaced non-Marathi signboards, though Thackeray later paused the agitation. Amidst this, a video is going viral on social media (here, here, and here) showing a protest at Mumbai’s Gateway of India, where people held placards saying, “I don’t speak Marathi. Please don’t label us as traitors”. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: The video shows people protesting in front of the Gateway of India in Mumbai against the imposition of Marathi.
Fact: The video is AI-generated and does not depict a real protest. There are no credible media reports of such a protest occurring in front of the Gateway of India. The video was originally shared by an Instagram user named “Paribhraman” on 09 April 2025, which clearly stated that the entire content was AI-generated. An AI detection tool also confirmed that the video was created using artificial intelligence. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We conducted an internet search using relevant keywords to verify the viral claim. However, we found no credible reports about such a protest in Mumbai against the imposition of Marathi in front of the Gateway of India. Given the significance of such an incident, it would likely have received substantial media coverage, but no such reports were found.
Upon closely reviewing the viral video, we noticed a few discrepancies in the visuals.
We also noticed a watermark reading “Paribhraman” on the viral video. Suspecting this to be the name of the video’s creator, we searched for it online and found the same video uploaded on their Instagram page on 09 April 2025. The post included a disclaimer stating: “Entire content in this video is AI GENERATED.”
As per the bio, the account is run by Manab Gogoi, a digital creator from Assam. We found several other videos on the page, including those showing protests (here, here, and here), all appearing to be AI-generated. Another Instagram account linked to this profile describes Gogoi as an “AI Artist.”
Further, we used the Hive AI detection tool, which determined with 99.6% confidence that the video was generated using artificial intelligence.
To sum up, the viral video showing people in Mumbai protesting against the imposition of Marathi in Maharashtra is AI-generated.
