A video has been viewed thousands of times in social media posts that claim it shows Indian tycoon Vijaypat Singhania and his wife -- embroiled in a legal battle with their son -- singing their troubles away. But the claim is false. The video was actually filmed by a documentary filmmaker from Pakistan for her family and does not show the tycoon Singhania and his wife.
The video was shared on Facebook on September 14, 2021.
Its caption states: "Vijaypat Singhania (former Chairman Raymonds) & his wife, singing a song and enjoying without music - in their hotel room, after they were thrown (by their son) out of the empire, which was built by them.
"See the chemistry between the couple. Enjoy the life which is short and make it sweet. Once, they were one of the richest couples in india! Now they lead a hand to mouth life! A life time lesson! Life is so beautiful on every situation."
Vijaypat Singhania is an Indian tycoon.
Since 2015, he has been embroiled in a legal dispute with his son Gautam Singhania over the control of the billion-dollar textile empire Raymond Group, Indian news channel NDTV reported.
The video has been viewed thousands of times alongside a similar claim since at least 2017 here, here, here and here on Facebook; and here, here and here on Twitter.
But the claim is false. The video was filmed by a documentary filmmaker from Pakistan and actually shows her uncle and aunt singing.
Keyword searches on Google found an identical video was uploaded to YouTube on March 5, 2021 by Mahera Omar, a documentary filmmaker based in Pakistan.
The video's description states: "About eight years ago my uncle Jamshed Omar and aunt Shama Husain sang a lovely duet at our home one evening.
"The original song was sung by Hemant Kumar in the 1957 movie Pyaasa directed by Guru Dutt and music director was SD Burman. Lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (L) and video uploaded by Omar(R).
AFP reached out to Omar who confirmed her video has been shared in a misleading context.
She told AFP on September 20: "I filmed the video at my home in Karachi one evening when my uncle and aunt were visiting. They are cousins, not a couple.
"I first uploaded the video to my Vimeo channel some years ago. Someone in India uploaded it to their Facebook page, from where it first became viral. I only recently uploaded it to my YouTube channel.
"Jamshed Omar passed away recently. Shama Husain lives in London."
The Vimeo video, now deleted from the platform, was shared by Omar on Twitter in 2014.
Omar has previously shared on YouTube other videos of her uncle and aunt singing.
A representative for Raymond Group also refuted the claim in the false posts.
"The persons featured in the video [are] NOT the former Chairman, Raymond Dr. Vijaypat Singhania or his Wife," Rohit Khanna, head of corporate communications, told AFP on September 21.
An actual photo of Vijaypat Singhania and his wife was published by Getty Images here.