A video of a YouTuber dancing in a water logged street of Gujarat's Bharuch is circulating on social media as an incident from Madhya Pradesh. The same video is also being circulated as Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan on Facebook.
BOOM found that the viral video is a staged dance performance by YouTuber Naresh Sondarva in Bharuch. It was uploaded by Sondarva on Instagram and YouTube as a short video content.
The video shows Naresh Sondarva dancing to the tunes of the Bollywood song "Chham Chham Chhamacham" after he appears to come out of an auto rickshaw.
The video has been shared on Facebook with a caption in Hindi which translates to "In Sri Ganganagar today, for the second consecutive day, the auto rickshaw driver expressed happiness by performing a reality dance on the road filled with water to please Indradev on the road after Indra Devta refreshed the city with the showers of Sawan".
(Original text in Hindi: श्रीगंगानगर में आज़ लगातार दूसरे दिन इंद्र देवता ने सावन की बौछारों से शहर को तरोताजा करने पर आटोरिक्शा चालक रोड पर इंद्रदेव को प्रशन्न करने के लिए पानी से लबालब भरी सड़क पर ही रियलिटी डांस कर खुशी जाहिर की..)
Watch the video here.
Times Of India and Times Now share video with same claim
The Times of India and the official YouTube channel of Times Now shared the video as a real incident from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
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The same video was also shared by Jharkhand Youth Congress' verified Facebook page as Bhopal.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a keyword search and found an article published on Vibes Of India on July 16, 2022 with the title "Bharuch Auto Rickshaw driver started dancing after his auto gets stuck in heavy rain."
The article identified the man in the video as Naresh Sondarva, resident of Bharuch district in Gujarat. View the archived article here.
We then looked up Naresh Sondarva on YouTube and found a YouTube channel "Naresh Sondarva 72" upon keyword search.
Sondarva has posted the same video on his YouTube channel as a YouTube shorts on July 12. The video was also posted on Sonvadra's Instagram account as a reel. Sondarva's YouTube and Instagram page have several staged videos.
Additionally, we were able to see a "Shah Publicity" hoarding in one of the keyframes of the video. Shah Publicity is an outdoor advertising agency in Gujarat.
BOOM then reached out to Sondarva, who confirmed that he is in the video and was shot in Bharuch city, Gujarat.
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