Over the last few days, a video has been circulating on social media. It shows a girl, named Shreya, dressed like a bride. In the video, she gets out of a car and walks towards a young man.
A voice-over by a man recording the video from inside the car claims that his friend had wanted to meet her ex-boyfriend just a few hours before her wedding. So, he had to bring her to the final meeting.
“The girl could not marry her boyfriend due to family pressure. Ye hai sacchi mohabbat jo mukammal ho nahi paayi (This is true love that remained incomplete),” says the commentator.
The girl in a red bridal dress then hugs her ex for the last time. She returns to the car, and the man asks her if she wants to rethink her decision to get married. Sobbing, she asks him not to ask such questions. Otherwise, she won’t be able to get married.
In the viral video, the girl is wearing a red lehenga. Many people believed the incident was real. They assumed it was connected to an actual wedding.
After the video went viral, social media was flooded with reactions. Some people questioned the girl’s character. Others linked the incident to society and modern relationships.
Many believed it was a case of ‘emotional cheating’ and treated the clip as a real event. However, it was a scripted piece of content made only for social media.
According to her, it was a scripted video, but people misunderstood it as a true incident. She also shared that the way the video was presented harmed her reputation and led to online trolling.
"You all must have seen this viral video; the bride in it is me. I want to tell you one thing. The content creator for whom I shot this video did not upload it with my consent,” Shruti Dahuja said.
She said that she wanted to see the video before it got uploaded as she was concerned about the dress. According to her, the bridal dress did not fit her well as she was a ‘last-moment actress’ for the video.
She was worried about how she would end up looking in the ‘revealing’ dress. Her family might object to it, she thought. And, the content creator apparently promised to do the needful to protect her.
“You didn’t even pay me. I worked for you for free. I helped you at the last moment. You didn’t tag or collab with me. You are neither thankful nor sorry,” Shruti says in the video.
Since Shruti Dahuja was not a collaborator, she is not a beneficiary of the viral video, financially or otherwise. She is not tagged either. So, it won’t even attract any traffic to her Instagram account, which now has 4,259 followers.
Social media users are now slamming Aarav Mavi, the man who shot and shared the viral video. One of the people who has schooled the content creator about ‘consent’ is actress-entrepreneur Parul Gulati.
Anuj Mavi, Aarav’s brother, replied to the comment. He defended his brother’s choice to share the video.
“For the first day, this lady was enjoying this viral reel with Aarav up to 20 million views... That time consent was nowhere and suddenly the video got a hype than so-called CONSENT came into picture ... This is called hypocrisy,” he wrote while accusing Gulati of not being aware of the ‘whole picture’.
“...this girl went to the police station and demanded 50 lakh.... Have you talked with her about that.... And you are also promoting this bullsh*t just because of feminist angle..... Shame on you,” he added in a separate comment.
Aarav replied as well. He wrote, “At least, you should know the complete story of both side before commenting or favouring someone only because of gender.”
Another user joined in and slammed Aarav.
“Even if she didn't give consent, you have to give her credit and tag her. If you don't give any caption, people will misunderstand it. If someone trolls your sister like this, then you would know,” the user wrote.
Instagram influencer Urvee Tondwalkar also joined in to comment, “Shame on you! Please clarify that it was scripted!”