Actress Shriya Saran recently became a victim of impersonation, prompting her to speak out in anger. On Wednesday, she took to Instagram to call out an imposter and shared a screenshot of the phone number being used to deceive people. She also raised concerns about the misuse of AI, revealing that she comes across morphed pictures of herself almost every day—something that deeply disturbs her.
Shriya Saran on morphed images
In an interview with HT City, Shriya addressed the impersonation incident, saying, “This is not the first time someone has done this, but this is the first time I took a proper stand against it. This isn’t just about a number or a WhatsApp profile picture—there are so many morphed pictures of mine that look so real. What can you really do? People are mad. You have to be careful, but beyond a point, if something is affecting other people, you have to address it.”
She added, “Almost every day, I see a picture of mine that is not me—somebody else’s body with my face—on my Insta feed. My family has to go through all this; sometimes they even get fooled by the AI images. It’s becoming difficult to distinguish between fake and real. Sometimes they do a good job, and it’s really hard to tell. I’m like, ‘Is it me?’ It looks so close to what I look like. That’s when the problem really comes, because it can fool family and people I know.”
Speaking about legal action, she said, “How would I know that? That’s a bit too much to go behind. We told cybercrime, we told people it’s going on, and we’ve made it clear that it’s not me. I am just hoping no one gets fooled by the impersonator.”
About Shriya Saran
On the work front, Shriya was last seen in Mirai, where she starred alongside Teja Sajja. The film was released on September 12. She will next appear in Suriya 44, a Tamil gangster romance directed by Karthik Subbaraj, in which she features in a special dance number. She is known for her role in Drishyam franchise, and is set to reprise it for third instalment.
