Who is Zara Patel? Influencer in Rashmika Mandanna deepfake video
ZARA Patel found herself embroiled in a terrifying deepfake video incident that left her "deeply disturbed".
The influencer was filmed stepping into an elevator but technology enabled her face to morph into that of Indian actress Rashmika Mandanna - here's everything you need to know.
Who is Zara Patel?
Zara Patel is a British-Indian influencer with more than 450,000 followers on Instagram.
She is known by fans for sharing selfies and fashion content on the platform.
According to her Instagram bio, she is also a full-time data engineer and a mental health advocate.
She also creates adult content for her followers.
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Patel has provided her fans with a link on her Instagram account that allows users to access her explicit content, and chat with her.
Who is Rashmika Mandanna?
Rashmika Mandanna, born on April 5, 1996, is an Indian actress who works in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Hindi films.
She has won several awards including four SIMAs (South Indian International Movie Awards).
Her most successful films include Kirik Party, Anjani Putra, Yajamana, Bheeshma, Pogaru, Pushpa: The Rise, Sarileru Neekevvaru, Sita Ramam, and Varisu.
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She won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress South, for her performance in the Telugu romantic comedy Geetha Govindam.
Mandanna was in 24th position in Bangalore Times' 25 Most Desirable Women of 2016 and the winner of the Bangalore Times' 30 Most Desirable Women of 2017.
In October 2021, she peaked Forbes India's most influential actors on social media.
Rashmika began dating her co-star Rakshit Shetty during the making of Kirik Party, and the couple got engaged on July 3, 2017, at a private party in her hometown of Virajpet.
The couple mutually broke off their engagement in September 2018, due to reported compatibility issues.
Did Zara Patel share a deepfake video of Rashmika Mandanna?
Zara did not share a deepfake video of Rashmika, but the scary clip went viral on social media.
In a statement on Instagram, Zara Patel said she is ''deeply disturbed'' and ''upset'' by the incident, and urged social media users to verify things on the internet.
She shared: "It has come to my attention that someone created a deepfake video using my body and a popular Bollywood actress’s face.
"I had no involvement with the deepfake video and I’m deeply disturbed and upset by what is happening.
"I worry about the future of women and girls who now have to fear even more about putting themselves on social media."
Zara added: "Please take a step back and fact-check what you see on the internet. Not everything on the internet is real."
The video appeared to show Mandanna entering an elevator, thanks to deepfake technology, but the woman in the video was actually Zara.
In October 2023, Patel shared a video that showed her entering a lift in a black outfit.
She had shared the post with the caption, ''POV: you almost close the elevator door on me again….''.
However, in the morphed clip circulating on the internet, her face has been swapped with Mandanna's.
Mandanna took to X, formerly Twitter, to share her reaction to the terrifying video.
She wrote: ''I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online.
"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.''
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India's IT Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar responded to the disturbing deep fake by stating that under the nation's rules social media platforms have to ensure "no misinformation is posted by any user".
He said the video was a "dangerous and damaging form of misinformation".