Dharambirharyana

Submission 1,307

Part of a series on FaceApp Age Filter. [View Related Entries]

About

Dharambirharyana is an Indian content creator known for making videos about being a retiree from the state of Haryana. The account began gaining traction in late June 2023 after "Dharambir's" Reels about being a retired man trying to live his life to the fullest went viral. Theories about whether the account is run by a younger man using an AI face filter were shared after Dharambirharyana began posting increasingly outlandish stories, including having a man killed for defaulting on a loan, sleeping with Russian models and being kicked out of his house by his wife and daughter.

Online History

On June 22nd, 2023, Dharambirharyana posted his first Reel to Instagram^[1] (@Dharambirharyana) talking about how he hit someone on their head because he tried to charge him extra for a cup of chai. The video shows the user talking in a thick Haryanvi accent and gathered over 81,000 likes in two weeks (seen below).

Later on June 22nd, 2023, @Dharambhirharyana then posted his first viral Reel.^[2] In the clip, he can be seen swimming in a pool while saying, "This is the life I dreamed about while returning, and my children will not see a nickel of my earnings." The post gathered over 2.7 million likes in two weeks (seen below, left). On June 26th, he posted another video saying that despite leaving behind a life of crime, he had murdered someone for failing to repay a loan. The video^[3] gathered over 103,000 likes in a week (seen below, right).

Online Presence

On June 28th, 2023, the Instagram^[4] page @shitindianssay reposted a Dharambhirharyana video in which he says he's been kicked out of his house by his wife Sonia. The post gathered over 25,000 likes in a week (seen below).

On July 3rd, 2023, Redditor^[5] Deep_Slate_69 reposted a meme originally posted by Instagram^[6] user @rishbheditx to the /r/sunraybee subreddit, gathering over 700 upvotes in two days (seen below).

By July 2023, various internet users began theorizing that the Dharambhir character was purportedly made by a younger person using an aging filter, such as the one available on FaceApp or Snapchat. Redditor^[7] @BerojgaarEngineer posted a screenshot to /r/IndianDankMemes on June 30th, 2023, showing that a person named Pankaj Rathee was supposedly behind the account (seen below, left). On July 4th, Twitter^[8] user @JatinTweets_ then posted an image claiming that the character was made up as well, gathering over 6,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).