A clip from dance-based reality show Dance India Dance is circulating on social media platforms with the claim that a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader created ruckus in front of the judges after they rejected his son.
The viral video is actually a shorter version of a prank pulled on one of the judges, Punit Pathak, and is being shared with incomplete information to mislead the general public.
The claim
The almost 5-minute long clip shows a contestant refusing to accept the decision of the three judges - Mudassar Khan, Punit Pathak and Gaiti Siddiqui. He then proceeds to threaten the judges by saying that his father is a builder in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and will use his influence and power to pull the plug on the show.
However, the judges refuse to entertain him and he is made to leave the stage right away. But, minutes later, he reappears on the stage with a man posing as his father who goes on to engage in an ugly verbal spat with Punit Pathak.
A user by the name Casper Tariang shared the clip on Facebook and wrote, "A BJP top leader's son auditioning for Dance India Dance (Noida edition) created a disgusting & shameless scene along with his father & other goons. Welcome to "REAL" India ! Jai Ho."
The video has been viewed over 33,000 times.
Fact-Check
As notified by fact-checking website Boom, the claims made regarding the footage in question are completely false as all drama that unfolded on the show was premeditated by the producers to throw off Punit Pathak.
The clip is actually from the first episode of Dance India Dance season 5 which aired on June 27, 2015, and is currently available to watch on ZEE5. The showrunners had pulled a prank when auditions were being conducted in national capital Delhi.
The sequence of events as shown in the viral video starts at timestamp 40:00. After the drama escalates and Punit Pathak goes on to the stage, he is told that all of this was just a prank, a part which has been cleverly omitted from the clip to spread misinformation.
Below is the full video of the prank:
Therefore, it is evident that a clip from the famous reality show has been tampered with and is being shared with false claims.
