Who Is Zara Patel? Woman From Rashmika Mandanna's Deepfake Video

After Rashmika Mandanna's AI-generated deepfake video went viral after surfacing on the internet, the woman who was originally in the video has now reacted to the incident. As some netizens were stunned, many raised their concerns over the misuse of AI while the actor herself took to X (formerly Twitter) to address the situation.

The woman in the video, Zara Patel, is a British-Indian Instagram influencer whose video was taken to create the deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna. However, the influencer has addressed the issue clarifying she had no participation in creating or surfacing the morphed body video of the actor. 

Who Is Zara Patel?

Zara Patel, the woman whose original clip was morphed in the viral deepfake video of Rashmika Mandanna, responded to the situation on her Instagram and put out her statement. 

Taking to her Instagram, Patel wrote that she is "deeply disturbed" and "upset" about the situation and expressed that she is "worried" about the future of women and girls who will now have to fear more for putting themselves out on social media. 

Patel also urged the users to verify and fact-check the things on the internet saying "Not everything you see is real on the internet." She also clarified that she has no involvement with the deep fake video.

Patel is a British-Indian social media influencer with 451k followers who is also a full-time engineer and a mental health advocate. Apart from creating content on her account, she also seems to be sharing daily snippets of her lifestyle.

In conversation with news outlet The Quint, the influencer said that she had no clue who the Bollywood actor was and only came to know of her video being used after several people started tagging her. She said she was really scared seeing many people reporting her account. 

The influencer said she has been caught up in the controversy despite having no involvement in it and shared how she tried to report the video but Instagram has yet not had any options to report a "deepfake" video so "she reported it as fraud but it wasn't technically a fraud as per policy."

The Orignal Video

The Original video was shared on October 9 where Patel can be seen wearing a black body suit as a scripted reel with the POV (point of view) of "you almost close the elevator door on me again" which has 46 million plays. 

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A post shared by Zara Patel (@zaarapatellll)

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