A video of web series being shot in the lanes of Pydhonie, Mumbai has gone viral with false claims that terrorists were apprehended in an operation by Mumbai police. BOOM identified the location near Mandvi post office in Pydhonie and confirmed with residents that the video shows the cast and crew of a web series shooting scenes on the morning of February 14, 2021.
The video is viral with a caption in Hindi that translates to, "Terrorists caught from South Mumbai's Pydhonie area". The video shows a convoy of police cars entering a lane and people wearing police uniforms barging into a building. A few minutes later, the same men step out holding someone and take them away in the fake police vans. The video shot from the opposite building shows passersby walking normally and no additionaly security in place for the residents.
(Original text - साउथ मुंबइ के पाययधुनी ऐरीया से आतंकवादी पकडे गये है)
The video is also being shared with another false claim that it is from Uttar Pradesh. The tweet which says, "Terrorists from Kerala who are freely moving in home state, went to U.P to test Bomb expertise there being arrested by UP Police. Kudos to Kudos to @myogiadityanathji" wrongly adds that the video shows accused are from Kerala.
FACT CHECK
We first reached out to Mumbai police who rubbished the viral claim and said that the video is the crew of a web series shooting scenes in Pydhonie area.
S Chaitanya, Deputy Police Commisioner and spokesperson, Mumbai police told BOOM, "It is a shooting for a web series, in the area of Pydhonie police station, Mumbai."
We then contacted a local reporter who sent us a clearer video which clearly identifies names of buildings and shops in the area and further shows a cameracrew shooting the whole scene.
At the 1.22 second counter in the video, four members of the camera crew can be seen with one of them even holding a videocamera.
We further identified the street as Ebrahim Rehmatullah street in Pydhonie and using that found a local who stays in the same building from where the video was the shot. Azeem Mulla, a resident of Sayed Manzil said that the video is from Sunday, February 14. "I stay in the building opposite the one visible in the video and the video was in fact shot by Some of my neighbours. The video is from Sunday morning when the crew started shooting at around 7 am and did two to three takes of the same scene," Mulla said. He added there were multiple camera crew present in the area. "There were cameramen present below my building to shoot the front facade of the building, camera crew present below the Bata showroom and some on the other side too from where the vehicles enter the lane. Some of the locals asked them what was happening and they said it was a shooting for a series,"said Mulla.
(Additional reporting by Aftab Khan)
