Rashmika Mandanna Deepfake Row: Cheap Tutorials & Nexus of Instagram Fan Pages

Actor Rashmika Mandanna's deepfake video was first shared by a celebrity fan page on Instagram.

Rashmika Mandanna's deepfake video was shared on the internet three weeks before the calls for stringent laws to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) content began on X (formerly Twitter). The video was created by a fan page of the actor, which has now been deleted.

The reel had over 8 million views at the time of publishing this article.

This clip, which showed Mandanna entering an elevator wearing a black outfit, was created by morphing the actor's face onto the body of model-influencer Zara Patel, making it extremely difficult for an average user to differentiate between a real and a fake video.

A closer look at the now-deleted Instagram page showed that this video was not the only one. At least six more videos showed the actor's face morphed onto the bodies of other women.

However, the other videos were less convincing, or what is commonly known as 'shallowfakes'. At the same time, the fan page was linked to several other Instagram account which published similar content.

The Quint spoke to one of the deepfake creators of an Instagram celebrity fan page to understand their modus operandi and motives.

Who Are the Creators?

Actor Rashmika Mandanna's viral video was shared by a fan page called @rashmikaa_mandaanaa on Instagram on 18 October. Upon closer inspection, we found out that this was the first digitally morphed video that was ever posted on the page.

The account was created on the photo-and-video-sharing platform in November 2021 and initially picked videos of Mandanna from popular paparazzi accounts to share with their followers. Until three weeks ago, the pattern broke with the arrival of the first deepfake.

Within a few days' time, Mandanna's video gained over 8.2 million views on Instagram, with over 41,000 likes and 721 comments.

After receiving a massive response on the morphed video, the account started sharing more deepfakes of the actor. One of the videos that the account posted was created by another celebrity fan page account called @bollywood_foxes.

Unlike Mandanna's fan page, this one was filled with deepfake videos of many other celebrities, including Alia Bhatt and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Bollywood Foxes operates eight other celebrity fan page accounts on Instagram, some of which have thousands of followers.

It also 'collaborated' with the so-called fan pages of those actors, which contained deepfakes of them.

Another fan page of Mandanna, linked to the Bollywood Foxes network, went from 100 followers to 164,000 followers in merely eight weeks.

All these pages seemed to be linked to a Delhi-based social media advertising company, which claims to help promote Instagram and Facebook pages and handles.

The fan pages also seemed to promote an online betting website known as "Winbuzz", which allowed users to place bets on different sports as well as Indian elections. This social media platform of the website/application shows that it was promoted by actors like Shakti Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, and singer Jassie Gill.

Rs 1,000 For a Deepfake Tutorial

While going through the Instagram handles, we noticed a common link mentioned in their bios that led us to a website offering a "Deepfake Tutorial".

We reached out to the admin of Bollywood Foxes, who also ran the website, in order to understand how these creators operate.

When asked about their modus operandi, the admin, who chose to remain anonymous, shared that they initially received training from another person to learn the process of creating these AI-generative deepfakes. Following which, they established their own website to offer users a paid "face-swap tutorial".

Initially, the tutorial was priced at Rs 9,999, which soon became Rs 1,038.96 after a '90 percent discount' offer. 

To lure people in, the website also offered a bonus "bundle of reels" to users that would help them gain engagement on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and X.

The website also listed the multiple fan page accounts that Bollywood Foxes operates on Instagram to give users a referral to their "work".

Similarly, on Instagram, the admin would share the deepfake reels with a specific caption, which generally invites users to follow the link in their bio, including some hashtags, if they wish to buy their "face-change course".

When asked about the response they get from their website, the admin told us, "Yes, some people do come to us to learn how to make these deepfakes. But now I have stopped teaching. There are a lot of tutorials available on YouTube, which people can have free access to."

The admin clarified that some of the videos featured on their accounts weren't created by them and had been picked up from the internet. "There are still people out there who give me their videos; give me permission to morph them with a celebrity's face," the admin added.

The Motive Behind It

The battle against misinformation has become even more challenging with the rapid developments in AI-powered tools, due to which the detection of these deepfakes on social media has become even more difficult.

When we asked the admin about their intentions behind creating such deepfake videos, they shared that it wasn't to violate anybody's privacy but to make some money out of it.

"Every other person who makes money out of the internet is involved in something or another that is often morally incorrect or socially unacceptable. I don't have any source of solid earnings as of now. I barely make Rs 15,000-16,000 a month. That's why I created that website," the admin said.

Talking about their site, the admin added, "It was just a waste of money. I would like to put it like that. My intention in making that website was that I might make some money out of it. However, since these things are available for free, nothing really happened. I didn't make a single penny out of it."

While the content on the admin's page was highly gendered and some even sexually explicit, they failed to acknowledge its problematic nature.

According to a 2019 study by DeepTrace Technologies, a Milan-based firm which develops AI algorithms, "96 percent of deepfake videos are pornography, and nearly all of those involve women."

The admin said, "I used to make such kinds of videos. But some of them turned out to be so vulgar that I laughed. But now I am going to delete such videos that I previously posted on my page. It was just my starting phase."

Talking about the controversy surrounding Mandanna's viral deepfake video, the admin said they have decided to erase everything obscene from their accounts.