Is this Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma’s grandson Abhinav playing the Santoor? Know the truth

Yusof Behkar, an Iranian artist, has been misidentified as Abhinav, the grandson of renowned Santoor player Pandit Shivkumar Sharma.

A video of a little boy playing a musical instrument flawlessly has gone viral on social media, with claims that it shows late Santoor legend Pandit Shivkumar Sharma’s grandson Abhinav playing the instrument.

The caption of the viral post states, “Pandit Shiv Kumar’s grandson Abhinav playing Santoor like he was born with the art of playing santoor!!! Looks like his grandfather too. So beautiful”.

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation with a reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video and the results led us to the same video uploaded on an Instagram account named “bahman_behkar_kanoun” on 3 May 2024. The video describes the boy playing the musical instrument as @yusof_behkar. 

We also discovered that the boy featured in the viral video appears on Bahman Behkar’s Instagram profile picture and in several of his videos.

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Next, we contacted Bahman Behkar to find out more about the child. Then he said, “This is my son Yusof Behkar, an 8-year-old boy from Iran with a remarkable talent for playing the Qanun, a traditional Middle Eastern string instrument. Despite his young age, Yusuf has demonstrated exceptional skill and a deep passion for music”. And he added there is an Instagram page for Yusof behkar, there are many videos of Yusof Behkar playing the qanun. When we checked the same, we found that viral video also uploaded there. 

The qanun, kanun, ganoun or kanoon is a Middle Eastern string instrument played either solo, or more often as part of an ensemble, in much of Iran, Arab East, and Arab Maghreb region of North Africa, later it reached West Africa, Central Asia due to Arab migration. It was also common in ancient Armenia, and Greece. 

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was an Indian classical musician and santoor player who is credited with adapting the santoor for Indian classical music. A keyword search for his Grandson led us to a Hindustan Times report, published on 5 September, 2023. According to the reports, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma had two children, Rohit and Rahul. Sharma’s younger son, Rahul, has a son named Abhinav, who also plays the Santoor. The report also featured a photograph of Rahul Sharma and his son Abhinav playing the instrument.

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From this, it is clear that the viral video features Yusof Behkar from, Iran playing the qanun. The viral video shows Yusof Behkar from Iran playing the musical instrument known as the ‘qanun’. not Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma’s grandson

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False.  Yusof Behkar, an Iranian artist, has been misidentified as Abhinav, the grandson of renowned Santoor player Pandit Shivkumar Sharma.