Amitabh Bachchan couldn't sleep all night... Deepfakes a massive worry, says PM Modi

During the Madhya Pradesh elections, a deepfake video of Amitabh Bachchan appeared, prompting the actor to lodge a complaint.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an exclusive interview with Times Now, disclosed that Amitabh Bachchan had trouble sleeping the night after his deepfake video went viral.

PM Modi had the conversation with Sushant Sinha, consulting editor of Times Now Navbharat, and Navika Kumar, group editor-in-chief of Times Now and Times Now Navbharat.

In response to a question on the BJP's strong stance against the deepfake Amit Shah video circulating on social media, Prime Minister Modi described how seeing such videos might really disturb the subject. In this context, he shared a story about how Bachchan was upset when he saw a deepfake video in his voice.

The Bachchan deepfake video appeared during the Madhya Pradesh elections, prompting the actor to lodge a complaint. "You will be surprised to know, Amitabh Bachchan couldn't sleep all night, he said he had to file an FIR at night itself. He said why did this happen to me, I have nothing to do with politics, he said he greets politicians from a distance. He was very upset," PM Modi said.

Modi's suggestion on deepfakes

PM Modi went on to say that similar attempts had been made in the past and that he had made it clear during a meeting at the BJP headquarters that this kind of stuff highlighted the great crisis.

"In Madhya Pradesh, action was taken against culprits, it's not like such attempts weren't made in the past. And when I spoke on Diwali during a get together at the BJP Headquarters, I made a long speech on deepfakes that day, it's true I did it knowingly. That day, I conveyed before the media that this is a great crisis before the country. I was worried, and during the G20 summit, everyone expressed concern about this during our video conference. I said they're all talking about solutions. I gave them one solution. I said on such videos, a message should flash that this is AI generated content and one must see it as AI generated content," PM Modi said.

"It is imperative the warning shows not in one corner but prominently. The way all of you put a 'first on' watermark, a similar watermark should be put on these videos. Everyone across the world is worried about deepfakes. You can make any video of any person."

When asked if it will be a statutory warning, PM Modi said: "It is imperative the warning shows not in one corner but prominently. The way all of you put a FIRST ON watermark, a similar watermark should be put on these videos. Everyone across the world is worried about Deep Fakes. You can make any video of any person."

Congress links to deepfakes

Amit Shah was allegedly shown discussing eliminating reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in a deepfake video that was recently circulated by a number of Congress leaders. The 'deepfake' film was attributed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Congress.
Nationwide, BJP workers filed many First Information Reports (FIRs) and multiple arrests were made in relation to the matter. Five people, including members of the Congress social media team and leaders, were recently taken into custody by the Telangana Police, reported the TV channel.

When asked about the Congress links surfacing with such deepfake videos, PM Modi said, "The question is that those who have lost trust, this is not about elections, they have no connect with people. They are having to lie about everything. Like you mentioned, they lied about CAA, just as they were lying during the farmers' agitation. The way they keep spreading lies about all our decisions. Why spread lies? Because they feel that work is happening anyway. So they can't stop the work, they can't do anything
themselves. So then they resort to creating confusion. You can create confusion by spreading lies. So, they have started playing a game."