Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who came in support of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, fell prey to a doctored video in which Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker was seen 'bullying' an Indian Twitter user who called for boycott of the airline.
In a video that had gone viral, a Twitter user, 'Vashudev', made an appeal to people to boycott Qatar Airways, in the wake of the diplomatic backlash India faced following the remarks made by Sharma on prophet Muhammad.
In the video, Vashudev said Qatar, which offered asylum to M.F. Hussain who pained nude images of Hindu goddesses, is now criticising India over the remarks by Sharma. He posted the video with the tag "#BycottQatarAirwaysQatar."
In response, another Twitter user dubbed an old interview of Akbar Al Baker to make it sound like the Qatar Airways CEO is appealing Vashudev to cancel his appeal to boycott.
"Vashudev is our biggest shareholder with a total investment of ₹ 624.50. We don't know how to operate anymore. We have grounded all flights. Our operations are not running anymore. We are requesting Vashudev to take this call for boycott back," the dubbed words say.
Vashudev had misspelt the word boycott as 'bycott'. The dubbed audio further states: ""This is a special kind of boycott because it is b-y-c-o-t-t. Vashudev habibi, we are willing to give you one whole plane to make your TikTok videos or maybe we can give you two litres of petrol free."
In a series of Instagram stories which now seem to have been disappeared or taken down, Ranaut called the airline CEO “idiot of a man.”
"This idiot of a man has no shame bullying a poor man, mocking his insignificance and place in the world...
"Vasudev may be poor and insignificant for a rich man like you but he has the right to express his grief, pain and disappointment in whatever context it may be... remember there is a world beyond this world where we all are equal...," the stories had read.