A viral whatsapp video was highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently as he pitched for transitioning into a cashless economy.
In the video, a woman is seen searching her wallet but unable to find a change to give to the beggar. At this point the beggar tells the woman in the car that she can pay him with her debit card and pulls out a PoS (point of sale) machine.
While PM Modi said it is in the realm of possibility, he added "I don't know how true it is," as he spoke in Moradabad on December 3.
With the mysterious origins of the video unearthed, it turns out the video was made by a Hyderabad-based data processing and visualisation company called 'Numero Graphic Creative Solutions Private Limited.'
"It is a promotional video that we made. We gave the beggar that swipe machine to shoot for the video,'' Kulpreet Kaur, co-founder of Numero Graphic, was quoted saying to Indian Express.
Kulpreet who also features in the video, made the promotional video in November 2013 and posted on YouTube on January 16, 2014 in a bid to promote the company that was founded in March of 2013.
"Haven't we all seen beggars at traffic junctions — how people want to give them something and end up rummaging through their wallets with no small change? As a creative solutions team, we decided to make a video of a beggar seeking alms using a PoS machine to overcome the problem of small change," Kaur said.
Kaur and her colleague shot the video after finding a beggar who agreed to participate for a small fee near the Sai Baba temple in Banjara Hills.
"I don't remember asking him his name. We brought him to the location and gave him a swipe machine…He did exactly what we told him, and my colleague shot the video on his mobile phone. We started recording when the signal turned red, and it was over before it turned green," said Kaur.
