Actor Manoj Bajpayee, who hails from Bihar, has condemned the circulation of a doctored video falsely showing him endorsing the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. The video, originally part of an advertisement for a streaming platform, was allegedly edited and shared by RJD’s IT cell and later reposted by Tejashwi Yadav on his official X account.
The Padma Shri awardee, known for his roles in Gangs of Wasseypur and Satya, expressed anger over the unethical manipulation of his work for political propaganda.
Manoj Bajpayee’s Clarification
In a strong statement on X, Bajpayee wrote, “I would like to publicly state that I have no association or allegiance with any political party. The video being circulated is a fake, patched-up edit of an ad I did for Prime Video.”
He also appealed to the public and media to act responsibly and avoid sharing distorted material for political gain. He added, “I sincerely appeal to everyone sharing it to stop spreading such distorted content and urge people not to engage with or encourage such misleading content.”
I would like to publicly state that I have no association or allegiance with any political party. The video being circulated is a fake, patched-up edit of an ad I did for @PrimeVideoIN. I sincerely appeal to everyone sharing it to stop spreading such distorted content and urge… https://t.co/teeCJLhgvI
Following the controversy, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla criticized the RJD, calling it a “clip chor.”
“First Kay Kay Menon now Manoj Bajpayee slams RJD for video chori/clip chori. They talk about vote chori but actually they are real chara chor, land chor, paisa chor and now clip chor,” Poonawalla said.
The controversy echoes a similar incident from August when actor Kay Kay Menon disowned a ‘vote chori’ campaign video shared by the Congress, which used edited footage from his web series Special Ops promotions without permission.
Actors Taking Legal Steps
Several Bollywood actors have gone to the court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights. Recently, Hrithik Roshan obtained legal protection against the unauthorized commercial use of his image. Karan Johar, Suniel Shetty, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Akshay Kumar have also taken similar measures to safeguard their publicity rights.
