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← All fact checksAfternoon run · October 30, 2026 · #7 by reach
TechnologyOtherAI-generated media

Did Israelis sing the Hanuman Chalisa in Hebrew at a Tel Aviv beach concert?

Does a viral video show Israelis singing the Hanuman Chalisa in Hebrew on a Tel Aviv beach as a tribute to flydubai pilot Captain Smit Machchhar?

False

The beach concert never happened: the footage is AI-generated from a labelled artwork upload.

False. The video of a mass Hanuman Chalisa performance on a Tel Aviv beach is AI-generated. It was published on 23 October 2026 by a YouTube channel as labelled conceptual artwork, with a visible Veo watermark and SynthID confirming Google AI. The flydubai pilot attack and Captain Smit Machchhar's Hanuman Chalisa account, however, are real.

+5Sources ↓Original post ↗
AI-generated
The post as it circulated, labelled by our media check.Video · 3:29 · 624×352

Claims

✓ 3 true · ✕ 1 false

The video shows Israelis singing the Hanuman Chalisa in Hebrew at a large concert on Tel Aviv beach1234

✕ FalseCentral claimHigh confidence

The footage is synthetic. The Quint, Newschecker, Vishvas News and CyberPeace all reached that conclusion independently, and three of them traced the clip to a specific YouTube upload: the channel 'Secret of Vadas' published it on 23 October 2026, where it was marked by the platform as AI-generated, carried a visible Veo/Gemini watermark and was described by the uploader as conceptual artwork. SynthID, Google's own watermarking system, confirmed the video was made with its AI tools. Image and video detectors agreed: Sightengine put the probability at 99 per cent, Truthscan at 91 per cent, and our own Hive check scored it 0.97 for AI generation. The visual evidence points the same way: lip movements don't follow the sung words, the 'Thank You Smith' banner garbles and shifts, and crowd faces and limbs smear between shots. With the source openly labelled as AI and four fact-checkers agreeing, the decisive point is not one detector score but the origin plus the watermark. No credible outlet reported a mass beach concert of this kind.

Still open: Who first attached the pilot story to the AI clip, and whether the 'Secret of Vadas' uploader intended the artwork to be shared as real, is not established.

Indian flydubai captain Smit Machchhar chanted the Hanuman Chalisa while fighting off an attack by his co-pilot and thereby helped save the passengers' lives678

“He recited this powerful Hindu mantra during an attack by an Omani terrorist on FlyDubai flight & thus saved Jewish lives!”

✓ TrueHigh confidence

This part holds up. On 30 September 2026 the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv attacked Captain Smit Machchhar in the cockpit. The wounded captain opened the cockpit door, passengers helped subdue the attacker and the aircraft landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Machchhar later told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a call shown on video, that he kept reciting the Hanuman Chalisa through the ordeal. AFP, The Indian Express and The Business Standard all reported that account, and the quote is attributed directly to Machchhar rather than to a source close to him. The caption does misspell his name as 'Sumit' rather than Smit Machchhar. The 'saved Jewish lives' phrasing goes beyond what the reports state, but the core of the story — the attack, the prayer, the landing — is documented by mainstream outlets. The sourcing here is stronger than for the video claim: eyewitness and official accounts, not anonymous social posts.

The attacker on the flydubai flight was an Omani national and the incident was a terrorist act6

“during an attack by an Omani terrorist on FlyDubai flight”

✓ TrueHigh confidence

The nationality and the 'terrorist' label come from named officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified the co-pilot as an Omani national, and UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash called the incident a terrorist act. Both statements were reported by AFP and carried through to other outlets. That does not make the label a legal finding — no court verdict is cited — but the post is not inventing it: it is repeating what senior officials said. Our confidence is high because the attribution is specific and comes from people speaking on the record, not from an unnamed social media source. The poster does get one detail wrong elsewhere in the same sentence, calling the captain 'Sumit' rather than Smit Machchhar, which is a reminder that even a broadly accurate account can carry small errors.

Still open: The legal status of the incident, as opposed to the political label officials used, is not addressed in the input.

An Israeli tribute to Captain Machchhar did take place, with an Israeli singer performing the Hanuman Chalisa2

✓ TrueModerate confidence

A tribute did happen, but it was much smaller than the video suggests. Israeli singer Ben Raivitz recorded a solo, indoor rendition of the Hanuman Chalisa dedicated to Machchhar and posted it on Instagram, according to NDTV and Ei Samay as cited by Newschecker. That is a different event from a crowd on a beach with a stage and screens. The claim is rated true because the core fact — an Israeli singer performed the Hanuman Chalisa as a tribute — is documented. But anyone reading the post would picture the beach concert, and that is precisely the gap the video fills with fabricated footage. Confidence is moderate rather than high because the tribute rests on a single reporting chain: the news outlets trace back to the singer's own Instagram post, so it is effectively one origin, not several independent confirmations.

Still open: The exact date of Raivitz's rendition and whether he coordinated with anyone else is not established in the input.

What was posted

X

A post on X shares a video that appears to show a large crowd on a Tel Aviv beach at a concert stage decorated with an image of the Hindu deity Hanuman, an Israeli flag and a photograph of an Indian pilot. Women in white appear to sing the Hanuman Chalisa, with Hebrew-sounding lyrics mixed into the chant. The caption asks readers to believe the event was a tribute to an Indian flydubai captain who chanted the prayer during a hijacking-style attack.

“Beautifully sung “Hanuman Chalisa” in Hebrew at Telaviv beach by Israelis as a tribute to our Indian pilot Captain Sumit. He recited this powerful Hindu mantra during an attack by an Omani terrorist on FlyDubai flight & thus saved Jewish lives! Jai Shree Ram Jai Hanuman 🙏🕉️🇮🇳🇮🇱”

Posted on X by an account with no bio details shown; the same clip spread across social platforms and was addressed by several independent fact-checkers.

Who posted it

X
@tilushavyas
View the account on X ↗

Account check

Looks like a genuine account30%
Likelihood of automation15%

Estimates from public signals — account age, posting pattern, audience — not a judgement of the person behind the account, and separate from whether this post is true.

What stood out

  • Profile bio identifies the user as a BBC-trained journalist, TV presenter and freelance producer; the name matches a London-based journalist cited by The Telegraph (India) in 2013, supporting a real-person identity.
  • Account is not platform-verified and key metadata (follower count, creation date, bio fields) was unavailable from the provided snapshot, limiting verification.
  • The account is highly active (~24.7K posts) with a consistent personal voice and political commentary, not displaying obvious automation signatures.
  • On 24 Feb 2025 it posted a Ganesh aarti video falsely presented as filmed at the Dubai stadium after India's Champions Trophy win; Digiteye, BOOM, PTI and India Today found the clip came from Wankhede Stadium and Ahmedabad.
  • On 25 Oct 2026 it shared an AI-generated video as real, claiming Israelis sang the Hanuman Chalisa in Hebrew on a Tel Aviv beach; The Quint, Vishvas News, Newschecker and CyberPeace debunked it as synthetic media.
  • Content is strongly partisan and pro-BJP, including inflammatory attacks on named individuals and conspiracy-style posts about Trump, 'grid down' and WW3.
  • A Community Note disputes the framing of its October 2026 Halloween/police-guidance post, though the underlying police guidance was reported by UK outlets.
  • Pattern is of a genuine, highly partisan commentator who repeatedly amplifies unverified or fabricated viral content rather than a coordinated bot network.
Signals (7)+
Posting cadence
Very high (~24,700 total posts)
Identity corroboration
Name matches journalist cited in Telegraph India (2013); bio claims BBC training
Fact check history
At least two confirmed false/misleading viral claims: Feb 2025 Dubai Ganesh aarti; Oct 2026 AI Hanuman Chalisa video
Notable news coverage
Cited in fact-checks by Digiteye India, The Quint, Vishvas News, Newschecker and CyberPeace
Political lean
Pro-BJP / Hindu-nationalist
Automation indicators
None strong; consistent personal style and high-volume manual posting
Community notes
At least one visible Community Note disputing a post's framing

Account checked October 30, 2026, 15:07 UTC

The media

Video
AI-generatedPresented as real footage· The claim depends on it

✓ What is genuine

The photograph of the pilot and the Israeli flag on the stage screen reference a real person and a real national symbol; the pilot story they point to is documented. But the concert scene itself is not real footage.

The tells

  • ●●● Strong signal The singers' lip movements do not follow the words being sung.our visual review
  • ●●● Strong signal The banner reading 'Thank You Smith' is garbled and keeps distorting through the clip.our visual review
  • ●●○ Supporting signal Crowd faces and limbs are smeared and repeat oddly between shots, and the crowd geometry shifts implausibly between wide angles.our visual review
  • ●●● Strong signal A Veo/Gemini watermark is visible in the footage.Newschecker
  • ●●● Strong signal SynthID detected Google AI generation in the video.Vishvas News
  • ●●● Strong signal Our detector scored the clip 0.97 for AI generation.our detector

Synthetic-media detector

Detector ran

The claim stands or falls on whether the media is real, so the detector ran.

AI-generated likelihood97%
Deepfake likelihood0%

Scores are the detector’s estimate for the file as uploaded. A low score does not rule out editing, a spliced caption, or footage shown out of context — those are judged above. Model v3.

How we checked the media

  • Reviewed the video frame by frame, checking lip movements against the sung lyrics, text on the stage banner and the appearance of crowd faces and limbs.
  • Traced the clip's origin through independent fact-checkers to a YouTube upload on 23 October 2026 by the channel 'Secret of Vadas'.
  • Noted the visible Veo/Gemini watermark and the platform's AI-generated label on that upload.
  • Considered SynthID confirmation of Google AI generation and the detector results cited by fact-checkers (Sightengine 99 per cent, Truthscan 91 per cent).
  • Ran our own media detector, which scored the video 0.97 for AI generation.

Sources

8 sources reviewed

Further reading

  • 2Newschecker Traces the clip to its original 23 October 2026 YouTube upload, the 'Secret of Vadas' channel and the Veo watermark.
  • 7The Indian Express Reports Captain Machchhar's own account of reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, in his words.
  • 4CyberPeace Sets out the detector scores and the absence of credible media coverage of the alleged concert.

The full story

The post blends a real story with a fabricated image of a crowd. The kernel of truth: on 30 September 2026, the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv attacked Captain Smit Machchhar in the cockpit. The wounded captain opened the cockpit door, passengers helped restrain the attacker, and the plane landed at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. Later, in a video call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Machchhar said he had kept reciting the Hanuman Chalisa during the struggle. AFP, The Indian Express and The Business Standard reported the account, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified the attacker as an Omani national.

There was also a genuine tribute, though far smaller than the post implies. Israeli singer Ben Raivitz recorded a solo, indoor Hanuman Chalisa rendition dedicated to Machchhar and posted it on Instagram, according to Newschecker's citation of NDTV and Ei Samay here.

What did not happen is the event in the video: a mass Hanuman Chalisa concert on a Tel Aviv beach. The clip came from a YouTube channel called 'Secret of Vadas', which uploaded it on 23 October 2026 as AI-generated conceptual artwork, with a Veo watermark and a platform label. That origin is why the false claim felt plausible. The pilot story was everywhere, the tribute was real, and the AI clip slotted neatly into the gap between them. A viewer who already believed the tribute happened had little reason to question footage that matched the mood of the moment.

Kernel of truth

Captain Smit Machchhar did recite the Hanuman Chalisa during the 30 September 2026 cockpit attack, and an Israeli singer did record a small indoor tribute — but no mass Tel Aviv beach concert took place.

Timeline

  1. September 30, 2026

    The co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 attacks Captain Smit Machchhar in the cockpit; the plane lands in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. 8The Business Standard

  2. October 23, 2026

    The YouTube channel 'Secret of Vadas' publishes the Hanuman Chalisa beach clip labelled as AI-generated conceptual artwork, with a Veo watermark. 2Newschecker

  3. October 25, 2026

    The clip circulates on X presented as real footage of a Tel Aviv beach tribute to the pilot.

How it was framed

False contextManipulated content

The footage is a genuine creative work — openly labelled as AI artwork by its uploader — but the post removes that context and presents it as documentary footage of a real event. The real pilot story is attached to it to make the false scene feel credible.

  • “Visual proof”. The post leads with a concert video and a stage showing Hanuman, an Israeli flag and the pilot's photograph, inviting the viewer to treat the footage as the evidence itself.
  • Emotional language. Phrases like 'Beautifully sung', 'powerful Hindu mantra' and 'saved Jewish lives!' frame the scene as a moving tribute.
  • Borrowed authority. The caption invokes 'our Indian pilot Captain Sumit' and a real attack on 'FlyDubai flight' to lend the video a documented story.
  • Missing context. The post does not mention that the clip was uploaded as AI-generated conceptual artwork or that it carries a Veo watermark.

Posted on X (formerly Twitter) by an account that did not disclose the clip's AI origin or the original YouTube upload. The same footage spread across social platforms and was examined by several independent fact-checkers.

Bias

NoneSlightModerateStrong

Leans Hindu-nationalist / pro-India-Israel solidarity. The caption uses emotive devotional framing ('Jai Shree Ram Jai Hanuman'), an 'Omani terrorist' label and an India-Israel flag pairing to build a triumphalist brotherhood narrative, and presents fabricated footage as documentary evidence of Israeli devotion to a Hindu god and to an Indian hero.

Bias describes how the post frames its message — the slant of the language, selection and emphasis — and is judged separately from whether the claim is true. A true claim can still be framed with a strong slant.

How we checked

51 s
  1. 1

    Searched for reporting on a Hanuman Chalisa concert in Tel Aviv honouring the flydubai captain.

  2. 2

    Searched for the pilot story and the attack on flight FZ1073.

  3. 3

    Searched for fact-checks of the video and for the 'Secret of Vadas' YouTube upload.

  4. 4

    Reviewed the video visually, checking lip movements, banner text and crowd details.

  5. 5

    Ran our media detector, which scored the clip as AI-generated at 0.97.

  6. 6

    Compared the detector result with SynthID and the detector scores cited by independent fact-checkers.

✓ Claim checked✓ Media checked✓ Sources checked

Why 95% confidence

High

Confidence is high because several independent lines of evidence agree: the clip's own upload is labelled AI-generated, it carries a visible Veo watermark, SynthID confirms Google generation, four fact-checkers reached the same conclusion, and our detector scored it 0.97. Any one of these could be disputed; together they leave no realistic doubt.

Limits. We could not review the video frame by frame in every second of footage, and we did not independently verify the identity of the person who operates the 'Secret of Vadas' channel.

What we don’t know

  • Who first attached the pilot story to the AI clip, and whether they knew it was artwork when they posted it as real footage.
  • What the 'Secret of Vadas' channel intended when it published the clip as conceptual artwork on 23 October 2026.
  • The exact date Ben Raivitz recorded his indoor Hanuman Chalisa tribute.

Spot it yourself

Spot the fake

Looks suspicious, isn’t proof

  • The post is highly emotional and patriotic in tone — that makes it worth checking, but plenty of genuine posts are emotional too.
  • The caption misspells the captain's name as 'Sumit' — sloppiness is a reason to look closer, not proof of fabrication.
  • 'Too perfect' production values on a beach: real concerts can look polished, so quality alone does not settle it.
  • The video arrived with no date or location — an undated clip is hard to verify but not automatically fake.

The actual evidence

  • The clip was traced to a YouTube upload on 23 October 2026 that its own channel described as AI conceptual artwork and that carried a visible Veo watermark.
  • SynthID, Google's watermarking system, confirmed the video was made with Google AI tools.
  • Independent detectors — Sightengine at 99 per cent, Truthscan at 91 per cent and our own Hive check at 0.97 — all scored it as AI-generated.
  • Visual inspection found lip movements that do not match the lyrics, a garbled and shifting 'Thank You Smith' banner, and smeared, repeating crowd faces.
  • No credible outlet reported a mass Hanuman Chalisa concert on a Tel Aviv beach, even though such an event would have been widely covered.
  1. 1

    Ask whether the event would have been reported elsewhere

    Search for news coverage of the specific event — a beach concert in Tel Aviv — not just the video. If only social posts appear, treat the footage with suspicion. A mass public event with a stage and screens would be covered by local and international media.

  2. 2

    Look for the original upload

    Search distinctive phrases from the post or upload the clip to a reverse video search. The earliest version here was on YouTube and openly labelled as AI artwork; the platform label and watermark are the giveaway.

  3. 3

    Check the watermark and platform labels

    Pause on the corners of the frame and look for names like Veo or Gemini. A watermark check cannot prove a clip is real, but a visible AI-tool mark or an 'AI-generated' label does prove what you are looking at.

  4. 4

    Inspect faces, hands and text

    Slow the video down and watch lips against the sung words, and read any banner or sign. AI video often produces garbled text and smeared or duplicated background faces.

  5. 5

    Separate the real story from the video

    The pilot attack is documented by mainstream outlets; the concert is not. A real story can be used to make a fake clip feel true, so check each part separately.

Takeaway

A true story attached to a video does not make the video true. Trace the footage to its first upload, and check whether the event it claims to show appears anywhere beyond social media reposts.

Questions people ask

Is the video of Israelis singing the Hanuman Chalisa in Hebrew at a Tel Aviv beach real?+

No. The video is AI-generated. It was published on 23 October 2026 by a YouTube channel that labelled it as conceptual artwork, and it carries a Veo watermark and SynthID detection confirming Google AI generation. Several independent fact-checkers reached the same conclusion, and no credible outlet reported such a beach concert.

Did Captain Smit Machchhar really recite the Hanuman Chalisa during the flydubai attack?+

Yes. On 30 September 2026 the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 attacked Machchhar in the cockpit. The wounded captain opened the door, passengers helped subdue the attacker and the plane landed in Tabuk. Machchhar told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video call that he kept reciting the Hanuman Chalisa. AFP, The Indian Express and The Business Standard all reported it.

Is the pilot's name Captain Sumit or Captain Smit Machchhar?+

It is Captain Smit Machchhar. The viral caption misspells his surname as 'Sumit'. The AFP report, The Indian Express and The Business Standard all give the name as Smit Machchhar, and he was identified that way in his call with Prime Minister Modi. Small name errors are a reminder to check details before sharing.

Was there any Israeli tribute to the pilot at all?+

Yes, but a much smaller one. Israeli singer Ben Raivitz recorded a solo, indoor rendition of the Hanuman Chalisa dedicated to Machchhar and posted it on Instagram, according to reports cited by Newschecker. That is not the mass beach concert shown in the video.

How can I tell if a video was made with AI?+

Look for a platform AI label and a visible watermark such as Veo or Gemini. Slow it down and check whether lip movements match the words and whether any text on screen is garbled. Then search for news coverage of the specific event. A clip that only appears in social reposts, with no media reporting, deserves suspicion.

Go deeper

SynthID
A watermarking system made by Google that embeds an invisible signal in AI-generated content so tools can detect it later.
False context
When genuine content — an image, video or quote — is shared with the wrong story attached, so it looks like evidence of something it was never about.
AI detector
Software that estimates whether an image, video or audio clip was made by artificial intelligence, usually by giving a probability score rather than a simple yes or no.

People also search for

Israelis singing Hanuman Chalisa in Hebrew Tel Aviv beach videoCaptain Sumit Hanuman Chalisa FlyDubaiHanuman Chalisa Hebrew song Tel Aviv AI generatedकैप्टन स्मित मच्छार इजरायल हनुमान चालीसा वीडियोHanuman Chalisa at Tel Aviv beach tribute to Indian pilot
For educators+
AI-generated media and how to spot itFalse context: genuine creative work presented as documentary footageThe kernel of truth: how real events make false content more believable
  • The pilot story in this post is real and the video is fake. Why might people share the whole post anyway, and what should they check first?
  • The creator uploaded the clip as labelled AI artwork. Does that change how responsible they are when someone else reposts it as real?
  • What difference would it make if platforms automatically displayed an AI label on this video, rather than leaving it for viewers to spot?

About this check

Platform
X
Posted by
@tilushavyas
Posted
October 26, 2026
Age when checked
Older post, still live
Where it spread
India, Israel
Audience
International audience
Language
EN
Status
● Post is live
Verified
October 30, 2026, 15:08 UTC
Published
October 30, 2026, 15:08 UTC

Reach. 6,038 likes (syndication). Fact-checked as AI by The Quint (28 Oct) and Factly (29 Oct, Telugu). Deccan Chronicle (27 Oct) said the video 'has gone viral on social media'.

This verdict was generated with AI from the sources shown. AI can make mistakes — check the sources before relying on it.

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