The accused had created the video to increase the followers on his fan page of Rashmika Mandanna on Instagram, an official said.
Rashmika Mandanna. (X)
Actor Rashmika Mandanna has expressed gratitude towards Delhi Police after it arrested a B.Tech graduate from Andhra Pradesh in connection with a deepfake video of the “Animal” star that was widely circulated on social media.
The video went viral on social media in November which showed a woman, dressed in a black workout onesie, stepping inside an elevator.
The accused, who has been identified as 23-year-old Eemani Naveen, a native of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, had morphed British-Indian social media personality Zara Patel’s face using artificial intelligence (AI) to resemble the actor.
On Saturday, Mandanna shared a note on her official X page and tagged the handle of Delhi Police’s Cyber Crime Unit.
“Expressing my heartfelt gratitude to @DCP_IFSO. Thank you for apprehending those responsible. Feeling truly grateful for the community that embraces me with love, support and shields me,” the 27-year-old wrote.
“Girls and boys – if your image is used or morphed anywhere without your consent. It is wrong! And I hope this is a reminder that you are surrounded by people who will support you and action will be taken!” Mandanna added in her post.
Expressing my heartfelt gratitude to @DCP_IFSO 🙏🏼 Thank you for apprehending those responsible.
Feeling truly grateful for the community that embraces me with love, support and shields me. 🇮🇳
Girls and boys – if your image is used or morphed anywhere without your consent. It…
— Rashmika Mandanna (@iamRashmika) January 20, 2024
The accused had created the video to increase the followers on his fan page of Rashmika Mandanna on Instagram, an official said.
Deepfake is a digital method where users can replace one person’s likeness convincingly with that of another using AI technology.
On 10 November, an FIR was registered under sections 465 (punishment for forgery) and 469 (forgery for the purpose of harming reputation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 66C and 66E of the Information Technology Act at the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) Unit of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell.
The case was registered on the complaint of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).
Mandanna had received support from her colleagues including Amitabh Bachchan, Mrunal Thakur and Naga Chaitanya when the deepfake video went viral on social media.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), IFSO, Dr Hemant Tiwari, said that Naveen created the deepfake video of the actress just to increase the followers and posted it on the fan page on 13 October.
He had used the AI (artificial intelligence) technique with the help of YouTube to make the video, he added.
The DCP said that the fan following of this page increased from 90,000 to 1,08,000 within two weeks due to the deepfake video.
When Naveen later realised that it became a national sensation and also saw tweets from famous film stars against the said Deepfake video, he got scared and deleted the said posts from the Instagram Channel and also changed the name of Insta channel, he added.
Tiwari further said that Naveen had also deleted the relevant digital data from his devices.
Another officer said it was found during the preliminary analysis that the original video was uploaded by a British Indian girl on her Instagram account on 9 October, 2023, and later on deepfake video of Mandanna was created and circulated on various social media platforms.
The officer said that more than 500 social media accounts related to the alleged deepfake videos were analysed during the investigation.
After the deep analysis and interrogation of suspected persons, finally Naveen’s account was traced on Instagram, the officer said.
A team of Inspector Hansraj Swami and Sub-Inspector Kapil Yaduvanshi under the supervision of ACP Manoj Kumar was sent to Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, and located Naveen at his house, he added.
An officer said Naveen told the police during interrogation that he is a big fan of Mandanna and he created a fan page of her and two other film actors.
He would manage all three pages and upload original and clean videos on them, the officer said.
The officer further said that followers of the fan page of two other film stars were in lakhs but Mandanna’s was below one lakh.
Naveen while pursuing B-tech completed certification in Digital Marketing from Google Garage in 2019, he added.
Naveen got more interested in digital media, police said, adding he completed courses like website development, Photoshop and video editing from YouTube and other sources.
He returned to his village in March 2023 and started working from home by providing services of Photoshop, Instagram channel promotion, YouTube video creation, editing and search engine optimisation on charges basis, the police said.
A laptop and three mobile phones have been recovered from Naveen, they said.
(With PTI inputs)
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