On some days, the world seems like a place worth staying in. And then I make the mistake of opening Instagram. This time, it was an AI edit that did it: a man and a woman stood on a cliff, and the woman pushed the man off. It’s what has become of the recent Lohagad Fort murder case.
Discomfort came first, and then I was struggling to comprehend it. Why would someone make such a video? Why would someone turn a real-life loss into AI-generated mockery?
My discomfort didn’t come from the video alone, but from how easily one could find it. It is naïve to say that curiosity brought us here. If so, then what do the videos flooding social media convey: outrage, protest, or sheer numbness?
An important question arises. Did the entire country get triggered because it was a woman who killed her fiancé?
Across news agencies and content pages on social media, comments on the Ketan Agarwal murder case were full of anger, condemnation, and disbelief—but no contemplation.
Is this what passes off as dark humour? A murder case is being monetised with a strong dose of insidious misogyny. The intensity of engagement is clearly tied to the perpetrator, specifically, her gender.
Indian society is no stranger to violence. But every time a woman turns out to be the perpetrator, our world slips into mayhem. That anger is now finding voice in the form of AI edits and outrage content. And these are the same people who scroll past countless cases of men killing their wives or girlfriends. Meanwhile, the ‘nice guys’ are once again singing their same old song: “Look, women don’t want us.”
Did the makers of these morbid edits consider the grief of the Agarwal family? Does Meta account for it? How does one take away the onus from the AI platform? The entire ecosystem rewards content built on cruelty.
Are we coping or consuming?
Does recreating a tragedy bring someone closer to understanding it? Not really. A death being converted into content goes in the other direction—it’s a movement away from any real feeling. Why pause and think about what could have driven Siya Goyal to murder, when mocking her is so much easier? Especially when it comes with engagement and cold, hard cash?
Making sense of a tragedy requires pause, some time and silence to reflect upon a shocking incident. But the instant allure of AI disrupts that rhythm. Influencers jump the gun and create insensitive slop the rest of us are forced to consume.
Ketan Agarwal’s death has become a Baazigar edit, and the cliff where he died, the set of an AI film.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)