20-yr-old’s ‘viral’ train stunt video has rly authorities on toes

As a brief explanation to the video, Rahul wrote, “I did the famous train stunt from Salman Khan’s movie Kick. Hope you’ll like it.Please do not imitate it. This video is fake and done through editing. I will shortly put up a video on how it was done!”

Just as the views went up to 1,37,701, so did news spread about the video, with security officials on his track.

On Tuesday morning, Rahul checked for responses to his video. The search, however, threw up links upon links of newspaper reports  which said that security personnel were on the lookout for him.

The railways have now sourced a copy of the link of the video and are looking at legal options to probe the matter, as visualisation of train stunts can be booked under certain relevant sections, if the video is not shot with proper clearance.

Senior Railway Protection Officers from Central and Western Railway said they are probing the matter, adding that they need to first determine the location where the video was shot.

By Tuesday afternoon, Rahul uploaded another video as proof that the original one was edited and not real.

This time, in his explanation, he said, “Do not imitate. The video was fake and was made to demonstrate my editing skills. Please do not attempt any such thing.”
The new version is 2.32 minutes long and explains how Rahul created the first video. It first shows him crossing railway tracks, then a clip of an approaching train, and finally explains the technique of ‘masking’, used to piece two sequences together and make it look as one single scene.

It took Rahul three days to make the first video that went viral. He claims to have learnt filmmaking and editing on YouTube.

On his Facebook wall, there are a series of comments in which Rahul admits his mistake and repents having uploaded the video. He also repeatedly requested his friends to share the new video that shows the editing tricks he used to replicate the train stunt.

Rahul loves to explore content on Youtube and dreams of making a big India YouTube channel. It was while surfing online that he decided to use his knowledge of editing to make something that ‘would go viral’.

“I never thought it could set a bad precedent to others,” he said. Rahul fears that the police might visit him soon. He had not told his parents until late Tuesday about the incident.

To ensure that people see the fresh video, Rahul has decided not to remove the old one since that will direct people to his channel.

“If I remove the old video which has gone viral, people might not be able to locate my channel and see the fresh one,” he said.

The fresh video had received 174 views till Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, officials are still mulling over the action to be taken on the “stunt” before questioning Rahul, confirmed officers.

priyal.dave@expressindia.com