Zara Patel, whose video was used in Rashmika Mandanna’s deepfake, reacts

Screengrab from video shared by Zara Patel (L), and a deepfake featuring Rashmika Mandanna (R)

Zara Patel, the British-Indian woman whose video was used to create a viral deepfake of actor Rashmika Mandanna, says she is “deeply disturbed” by the incident. In a statement shared on Instagram, Patel said she had no part in the creation of the deepfake and was, in fact, deeply disturbed and upset by its existence.

She urged social media users to verify everything they see online before sharing it, because “not everything on the internet is real.”

A video of British-Indian influencer Zara Patel entering an elevator was used to create an extremely convincing deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna. In the deepfake video, the influencer’s face morphs into Mandanna’s as she enters the elevator. It is not clear who created the deepfake. Here is the original video, which Patel shared on Instagram in October:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zara Patel (@zaarapatellll)

Patel took to Instagram Stories to address the controversy. “Hi all, 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,” she wrote.

Patel, like Mandanna before her, pointed out the malicious scope of AI deepfakes and its potential for misuse. “I worry about the future of women and girls who now have to fear even more about putting themselves on social media. Please take a step back and fact-check what you see on the internet. Not everything on the internet is real. I'm deeply upset by what is happening,” she wrote.

Statement shared on Instagram Story by Zara Patel (@zaarapatellll/Instagram)

On Monday, actor Rashmika Mandanna also issued a statement on the deepfake, tagging the cyber police in her tweet.

“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,” the Animal actor wrote.

The video was first exposed by AltNews journalist Abhishek Kumar, whose viral Twitter thread on the subject helped debunk the clip as fake.