A video of a band of children making music out of empty tin cans and self-made flutes has been shared on Indian social media. People have assumed that the video is from India since the tunes played by the band resembles the song ‘Aao bachho tumhe dikhaye jhanki Hindustan ki’ from Satyen Bose’s 1954 film ‘Jagriti’.
Actor Anupam Kher claimed the video is from a village in India. He shared the video on both Twitter and Facebook.
भारत के किसी गाँव में कुछ बच्चो ने मिलकर अपना एक बैंड तैयार किया है।इस बैंड के पास कोई आधुनिक साज़ो सामान नहीं है।और इन्होंने धुन भी क्या चुनी है! मिलिट्री बैंड की।क्योंकि ये जानते हैं कि “असली पावर दिल में होती है!!” इन बच्चों की जय हो।किधर हैं ये बच्चे? 😍😎🇮🇳 @Bengaluruhudugi pic.twitter.com/e6TjweFRwJ
— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) August 18, 2021
The video is widespread in India.
What do you say to this Spirit in poor Villages. Playing the Army Band? Just too good…. Kindly share, let everyone know. Patriotism is not asset of those hearts in high positions..it’s born in heart. pic.twitter.com/sjSYw7Fxno
— Rachana🇮🇳PurohitasyaPutri/ಪುರೋಹಿತರಮಗಳು (@Bengaluruhudugi) August 17, 2021
NDTV also penned a story on the viral video.
Fact-check
This fact-check is divided into two sections:
1. Where is the video from?
2. What song are the children playing?
Old video from Pakistan
We found several people from Pakistan comment (1, 2) that the video is from Hunza in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. They also said that the children were known as ‘Chilimchi band’.
The oldest instance of the video that we found dates back to May 16, 2014. A Facebook user from Hunza had shared the video.
chrildren band of hunza hyderabad …..
recently they were win band competition in gilgit .cptan of ARMY appreciate them for their performance. Just they need of your appreciation so we must appreciate them………….!
Posted by Salman Khan Gulv on Friday, 16 May 2014
A page named Hunza Folk had also shared the video but in 2015. In a conversation with Alt News, the page informed that the video was shot in Hyderabad village, Hunza. The page shared a photograph of the band with Alt News.
We found this image as the display picture of a Facebook page that goes by the name ‘Josh band’ and the About section of the page says ‘Chilimchi band’.
The page has thanked Pakistan singer-songwriter Shehzad Roy for sharing their video.
Alt News further located a journalist from Gilgit interviewing the band in 2013 for Channel 5. The children said that they gained training from a local band.
CHILDREN LEARN MUSIC PACKAGE BY PERVEZ MIR CHANAL FIVE GILGIT
Posted by Pervez Mir on Saturday, 18 May 2013
Hunza Folk connected Alt News with Kashif Nawaz, the founder of the band. “The story began back in 2013 when I was just 14 years old. I belong to a small village in Hunza called Hyderabad, Muhallah Khurukushal. I was very fond of music, and used to play instruments since my childhood. I used to play the flute at home but one day I thought why don’t I create a band?”
“We started to make/design our instruments (drums) with spare ghee cans and we bought flutes with our pocket money. We couldn’t afford fancy and real instruments to play. I started to train my juniors as I was the most senior in the team. When we started we were only four persons, then interested ones started joining our band,” he added.
Nawaz told At News that locals gave them the name Chilimchi Band since they used tin cans to make music. The word ‘Chilimchi’ roughly translates to ‘utensils’. They later changed the name to Josh Band after gaining popularity. The name of the boy seen in the middle in the viral video is Ibrar Karim. He was the youngest member of the group. Nawaz said that Karim brought a lot of attention to the band because of his talent at a young age. The cover picture of the Facebook page of the band is a photo of Karim. He was six when he joined the band. The group still performs at marriages and other events.
Karim put out a video clarification about the misidentification of the location of his band.
Shehzad Roy Anupam Kher Ibrar karim josh band captain video about .. fake location provided by people about our band …. here our captain ibrar tell you our acutual location..thank you everyone for your support….keep supporting our band ❤❤
Posted by Josh band on Wednesday, 25 August 2021
The children are playing the song ‘Aao bachho sair karain tumko Pakistan ki’
Nawaz said that the band was playing the song ‘Aao baccho sair karain tumko Paksitan ki’. This is the Pakistani version of the original song ‘Aao bachho tumhe dikhaye jhanki Hindustan ki’ from the 1954 movie ‘Jagriti’. Pakistani film ‘Bedari’ released in 1956 had the song with the same tune but changed lyrics. Actor Ratan Kumar migrated to Pakistan soon after the release of ‘Jagriti’. He played the lead role in ‘Bedari’ as well.
In fact, the movie ‘Bedari’ was a complete copy of ‘Jagriti’. The Urdu word ‘Bedari’ means ‘awakening’ which is also the meaning of the Hindi word ‘Jagriti’. The film was banned in Pakistan after the Censor Board found that it was plagiarised.
An old video of a band formed by children in Pakistan’s Hunza is therefore viral with the false claim that the video is from India.
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