A video of an elderly woman dancing to Mohammed Rafi's song Badan Pe Sitaare has surfaced with false claims misidentifying her as veteran actor Vyjayanthimala Bali.
BOOM was able to confirm that the video does not feature Vyjayanthimala. We spoke to author and poet Yatindra Mishra, family friend of the actor, who confirmed that the viral video does not show her.
The video shows an elderly woman dancing to the song Badan Pe Sitare as several others cheered her. Badan Pe Sitare Lapete Huye is an iconic Hindi song picturised on actors Shammi Kapoor and Vyjayanthimala.
An X user posted the video with the caption, "_*Vaijayanti Mala, Famous Hindi Actress, aged 98 years now.*_ _*See the zeal and happiness of living even today at this dying/ fading age !* (sic)
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
BOOM also received the video on its WhatsApp tipline (7700906588) for a verification request. The video has been overlaid with a Tamil song and a caption misidentifying her as the actor.
Fact Check
We broke the video into keyframes and found several news reports from 2022 stating that the video of the elderly woman dancing went viral during the same time.
The reports did not identify the woman seen in the video.
Click here to view and here for an archive of one such post from 2022.
We then searched for recent appearances of Vyjayanthimala Bali and found news reports stating that she performed at Ayodhya in early 2024.
An India Today report from March 1, 2024, stated that the veteran actress performed after the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya at the cultural event ‘Raag Seva,’ which began on January 27.
Click here to view the post.
Next, we searched for more recent photographs of her and came across a Facebook post by author and poet Yatindra Mishra, who shared pictures of the veteran actress on September 17, 2024.
In his Facebook post, Mishra mentioned visiting Vyjayanthimala's Chennai residence and shared glimpses of his time with her there.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
BOOM then reached out to Mishra and sent him the viral video over WhatsApp to confirm whether the woman was the veteran Bollywood actor. Mishra told BOOM, "She is not Vyjayanthimala. Vyjayanthimala is more agile than the lady in the viral video and her age is 91 and not 99."
BOOM could not independently confirm the identity of the woman in the viral video.
(Additional Reporting: Shefali Srivastava)
