Fact check: Viral video of ISRO chief dancing is not from post-Moon landing party

In the 24 hours since India's Chandrayaan-3 made history and successfully landed on the Moon on Wednesday, social media feeds have been flooded with visuals of celebrations across the country and the world. One such video that went viral overnight shows Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath dancing with his colleagues at a party.

The video is being shared with the claim that ISRO scientists celebrated the success of the lunar mission with a party. In the 18-second clip, which seemed to mirror the sentiment of the jubilant nation, ISRO Chairman S Somanath and others can be seen grooving to the beats of a Punjabi-English song by Tesher and Jason Derulo called Jalebi, Baby.

“The party has begun. ISRO chief S Somanath having a light moment after years of non-stop efforts to make Chandrayaan-3 a success,” the caption in one of the videos shared on X (formerly Twitter) read.

Fact check

While the video of the ISRO chief indeed shows him dancing, it was not filmed after the success of Chandrayaan-3. A correspondent, Sidharth MP, working with Indian news channel WION, clarified in a post on Wednesday that the video is old and not related to the lunar mission.

“Pls note: This is a video from earlier this year and I had formal access to this entire event and that's how I had filmed it. This video is not from tonight (sic),” the journalist wrote.

India has become the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole and the fourth country — after Russia, the US, and China — to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface. The south pole region on the moon is believed to have the presence of frozen water.

• As it happened: India makes history! Chandrayaan-3 lands on Moon