'Did it to get Instagram followers': How man behind Rashmika Mandanna deepfake was caught

Eemani Naveen, the engineer arrested from Guntur for the deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna, told police that he allegedly wanted to boost followers on his Instagram handle.

In the video, which went viral last year, Mandanna's face was superimposed on a video of British-Indian influencer Zara Patel. The video sparked a discussion on the inappropriate use of technology, prompting numerous influential celebrities to voice their concerns.

Naveen, a native of Pedanandipadu village in Guntur, made the deepfake video to increase followers of one of the fanpages of Rashmika Mandanna he ran on social media.

He managed the fan pages for three noted celebrities. To boost the followers of Rashmika Mandanna's fan page, he created and posted the deepfake video on October 13, 2023.

The tactic successfully increased the fan following from 90,000 to 1,08,000 within two weeks.

However, as the deepfake video gained national attention and drew widespread criticism, Naveen panicked and deleted the posts from the Instagram channel.

Naveen completed his B.Tech from Adhi College of Engineering and Technology in 2021. He also pursued a digital certification course in Digital Marketing from Google Garage in 2019.

“He is a big fan of the actress (Mandanna) and was running a fan page in her name. He created two more fan pages of South-based actors and he had been managing the fan pages and uploading clean and original videos on them. Followers of his other two fan pages were in lakhs but that of Mandanna was only 90,000,” said DCP (IFSO) Hemant Tiwari.

“Due to this video, the following of his page increased to more than a lakh in two weeks,” said the DCP.

The accused has been brought to Delhi and will soon be produced in court, said the officer, adding that “it is a bailable offence but we will seek his police custody as we have to retrieve deleted digital data from his devices”.

The case unfolded when a complaint was filed, alleging the circulation of a deepfake video of Rashmika Mandanna on various social media platforms. A preliminary investigation revealed that the original video had been uploaded by a British Indian girl on her Instagram account in October 2023. Subsequently, a deepfake video of the noted film actress was created and circulated.

Following the outrage, Delhi Police registered a case in the matter under sections 465 and 469 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for forgery and maligning the reputation of a person. Additionally, Section 66C (identity theft) and Section 66E (privacy violation) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 were also invoked.

The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) Unit went through over 500 social media accounts linked to the alleged deepfake videos.

The Cyber Lab then conducted a meticulous analysis of the videos, leading to the interrogation of several social media account holders across India.

After extensive analysis and interrogation, the IFSO Unit traced the Instagram account of the accused to Andhra Pradesh's Guntur from where Naveen was arrested.