Videos of a Brazilian actor Inácio Falcão playing the character of a Christian priest 'Papa Popo Caruaru' is being shared on social media with the false claim that it shows a real Christian pastor dancing provocatively with women.
BOOM found that the man in the viral video is not a priest, but a Brazilian artist playing the role of a priest.
In one of the 17 seconds video, the man is wearing an outfit of a priest dances with a woman wearing a white top and black shorts.
The video was tweeted by Kanal Kannan, an action choreographer and screenwriter and the state president of the right-wing organization Hindu Munnani. Kannan tweeted the viral video on June 18, 2023, with the caption when translated from Tamil reads, "This is the true state of foreign religious culture???!!!! Think converted Hindus!!!! Repent!!!"
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Interestingly, Tamil Nadu police arrested Kannan on July 11, 2023, for the above tweet in Kanyakumari after a case was registered against him, based on a complaint by Austin Bennet, the deputy organizer of the DMK IT Wing.
Another video, which is 30 seconds long showing the same man dancing with another woman was tweeted by the Twitter user Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) on July 10, 2023, with the caption, "They are so close not even the holy ghost can fit in between them."
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On July 11, 2023, OpIndia published an article on Kannan's arrest titled, "Tamil Nadu: Police arrest stunt master Kanal Kannan over social media post of a Christian priest dancing with a girl"
However, nowhere in the article, does it mentions that the person seen in the viral video is not a priest but an actor.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the man in the viral videos is a Brazilian actor and not actually a Christian pastor as claimed on social media. The man in the viral video is Inácio Falcão playing the character of a priest 'Papa Popo Caruaru'.
On checking replies to the viral video on Twitter, we found people explaining that the man is an actor. Some replies also cited a fact-check article from Boatos.org which had debunked the claim that the man is a priest and identified him as an actor, Inácio Falcão from Brazil.
We then checked the YouTube channel - "Papa Popo Caruaru" which is run by Falcão where he posts videos of the same character. We also found the same videos of women dancing with the actor wearing an outfit of a priest.
The bio of the YouTube channel translates in English to, "Hello! My name is Inácio Falcão. I am an artist born in Caruaru. Creator of the character Papa Popó Caruaru. Which for several years has animated São João de Caruaru and other events such as: Carnival, Holy Week, Winter festivals, Regional parties, Moto Fest, Christmas, Private parties."
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We can see the same viral video of him dancing with a woman posted on "Papa Popo Caruaru" Instagram channel on June 20, 2023.
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The second video of the character "Papa Popo Caruaru" dancing with the another woman was posted on the YouTube channel on June 25, 2023.
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BOOM reached out to Iara Diniz, a fact checker with Lupa, a fact-checking and media literacy organisation based in Brazil.
Diniz told BOOM that the person in the viral video is not a priest but an actor whose videos are viral in Brazil.
Diniz shared with us a Facebook post from the page Conexão 4 from July 8, 2019, which had an interview of Falcão where he talks about the fictional priest character "Papa Popo Caruaru"
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BOOM has reached out to Falcão, the article will be updated on receiving a response.