Manoj Bajpayee Denounces Fake Political Video: Actor Clarifies No Association with RJD Ahead of Bihar Elections

New Delhi:

Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee clarified on Thursday that he has "no association" with any political party, following a "fake" video on X that falsely linked him to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

"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," Bajpayee stated on X.

"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," the Bihar-born actor added.

Bajpayee's statement came after a parody account impersonating RJD's Tejashwi Yadav shared a video that appeared to show the National Award-winning actor endorsing the party ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla criticized the RJD over the incident, calling the party a "clip chor" (video thief).

"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 remarked.

This incident follows a similar case from August when actor Kay Kay Menon distanced himself from a 'vote chori' campaign video shared on official Congress social media channels. Menon stated that footage from his spy drama series "Special Ops" promotions had been edited and used without his consent.

Recently, numerous Bollywood personalities have sought legal protection for their personality and publicity rights. These rights enable individuals to protect, control, and profit from their own image, name, or likeness.

Earlier this week, the Delhi High Court granted protection to actor Hrithik Roshan's personality and publicity rights, ordering the removal of certain objectionable social media posts targeting him.

The court was responding to Roshan's petition seeking protection against the illegal use of his name, images, and AI-generated inappropriate content across online platforms.

Previously, the high court had extended similar protections to other Bollywood celebrities including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, filmmaker Karan Johar, and Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna.