Fact Check: 'All We Imagine As Light' Director Payal Kapadia's Fake X Account Emerges After Cannes Victory

An X account falsely claiming to be Payal Kapadia, the director of Cannes winner 'All We Imagine as Light', has garnered attention. Kapadia confirmed a different X account as her genuine handle.

Impersonator account of Payal Kapadia replying to a congratulatory message by PM Narendra Modi.

Source : X/Modified

The Verdict [Fake]

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The account had changed its username multiple times in the past. Kapadia, who has warned against such fake handles, uses a different X account.

What is the claim?

An X (formerly Twitter) account (archived here) with the username'@payalkapadial' and a profile picture of Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia has gained significant attention recently by claiming to be the artist's real X account.

Kapadia's film 'All We Imagine as Light' won the Grand Prix prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2024. Following this, several leaders like Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi congratulated Kapadia, who became the first Indian to clinch the second-most prestigious award at the festival, on X. The account in question has replied to such congratulatory messages and gained significant traction online.

This led many other users to believe that the account(@payalkapadial) in question is what Kapadia uses to interact with people on X.

X account claiming to be Payal Kapadia replying to congratulatory messages by politicians. (Source:X)

However, we found out that this account does not belong to Payal Kapadia.

What is the truth?

Many of the X users had pointed out that the account in question was fake. 

We found some old posts and replies from the account '@payalkapadial,' which helped us establish that the account had changed the handle name at least twice previously before presenting itself as Kapadia's X account.

When opened on the X Android app, replies from February 2023 to these old posts show that the responses were addressed to '@K_L_SharmaINC' (archive here) at one point and '@JamiaSalafia' (archive here) at another time within the same month. The screenshots below show some of the replies addressed to the account whose username is only now '@payalkapadial.'

Posts showing the previous handles of the account claiming to be that of Payal Kapadia. (Source:X)

This suggests that the account changed its identity to Payal Kapadia after the Cannes win, presumably to gain followers. 

Kapadia creates an X account

After this impersonation attempt, Kapadia created an X account with the handle '@PayalKapadia86' and wrote on May 26 that a few 'fake accounts' had been made using her name. "Thank you everyone for the good wishes! I'm really overwhelmed! I prefer to stay away from social media. But I noticed some fake accounts on my name so thought it best to start my account. This is me! (sic)," she said. 

Film journalist and critic Namrata Joshi posted on X (archive here) that Kapadia's publicist confirmed the veracity of the account' @PayalKapadia86.'

Fake account then changes bio on X

Amid this, the fake account in question seemed to have changed the bio on X to declare itself as a parody account. It now reads, "Proud to be Indian 🇮🇳/award winner of the Grand Prix for ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT/ Payal Kapadia is not associated with this account./It's a Parody account." Whereas, earlier, the account hadn't presented itself as a parody account or put out any disclaimer to say that it is not the real account of Kapadia. Instead, its bio read, "Proud to be Indian 🇮🇳/award winner of the Grand Prix for ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT."

Effect of new X policy?

In 2023, after Elon Musk took over what was then Twitter, X began removing the legacy verified blue tick that helped identify genuine accounts of celebrities and journalists. This has resulted in multiple fake accounts of famous personalities going viral, including one of economist Claudia Goldin. This account falsely announced the death of Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and caused a brief panic.

Current X policy allows anyone to buy the blue verify check by paying a subscription, provided the account satisfies some conditions. Subscription to X premium or premium+ also makes users eligible for ad revenue sharing, which means users get a share of the money generated by advertisements on their posts. X also allows subscribers to hide the blue tick.

The verdict

We mark the account as fake as it impersonated Cannes winner Payal Kapadia. The username of the account has been changed multiple times in the past. Kapadia, who warned against the creation of fake accounts in her name, has a different account, whose authenticity has been confirmed.

This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. ABP Live has edited the headline and feature image of the report while republishing)