An image of a woman wearing a yellow “Banarasi bikini” and a veil, purportedly from a wedding ceremony in Lucknow, recently went viral on social media. The photo, accompanied by claims that the bride had defied traditional norms by choosing the unconventional outfit for her wedding day, stirred widespread debate online. However, upon investigation, the claim was found to be false—the image is AI-generated.
The picture shows a bride wearing a bright yellow bikini adorned with traditional jewellery and henna, holding a varmala (garland) opposite a groom dressed in a sherwani. Social media posts described her as a “Lucknow bride” who had broken stereotypes with her wedding attire. A widely shared caption read, “Lucknow bride breaks stereotype by wearing Banarasi bikini in marriage ceremony. Internet split in two halves.”
To verify the claim, a reverse image search was conducted, which traced the image to a Reddit post. The photo was originally shared in the subreddit DesiAdultfusion, which prominently features AI-generated artwork inspired by South Asian culture. The subreddit’s description clarifies that it is dedicated to showcasing AI-generated images and explicitly tags certain posts as “NSFW” for adult content.
Further scrutiny revealed that the viral image was categorized under this community’s AI-generated content, and one user even highlighted concerns about the misuse of such images on other platforms.
The image was analyzed using the deepfake detection tool TrueMedia.org, which confirmed it was created using artificial intelligence. The tool detected significant signs of manipulation, suggesting that platforms like Stable Diffusion, MidJourney, or DALL-E 2 might have been used to generate the image.
