Rashmika Mandanna has been promoting her upcoming film Animal and recently opened up about Deepfake videos. A widely circulated video of the actress entering an elevator was an artificial intelligence (AI) deepfake video where her face was morphed into the face of a social media content creator. Following the virality of the video, Rashmika had released a statement and raised concerns. Now, she has said that deepfakes are ‘scary’ and has urged women to use their platform to speak up.
As quoted by Hindustan Times, at a press event in Hyderabad, Rashmika said, “Deepfakes have been around for a while and we’ve normalised them but it isn’t okay. I always wondered who would even care if I chose to speak up and point out that it isn’t okay. So, I’m glad people from across the film industries have supported me. I understand now how important it is to speak up. I want to urge women to take the help they need when it happens.”
Her words come in right after a viral video of Alia Bhatt’s face morphed onto someone is circulating on social media. Earlier, deepfakes of Kajol and Katrina Kaif have also surfaced on the internet.
Earlier in November 2023, Rashmika took to X (formerly Twitter) to express her feelings, stating, “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.”
She continued, “Today, as a woman and as an actor, I am thankful for my family, friends and well-wishers who are my protection and support system. But if this happened to me when I was in school or college, I genuinely can’t imagine how could I ever tackle this. We need to address this as a community and with urgency before more of us are affected by such identity theft.”
Meanwhile, on the work front, Rashmika Mandanna is set for her next release. Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar’s T-Series, Murad Khetani’s Cine1 Studios and Pranay Reddy Vanga’s Bhadrakali Pictures have backed Animal. The film is releasing on 1st December 2023. ALSO READ: "Animal has a good love story," says Sandeep Reddy Vanga; speaks about Rashmika Mandanna's character
