Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor starrer ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ has been mired in controversy much before its release.
#BoycottLaalSinghChaddha was trending online with continuous demands for banning the movie in several states. The movie has been performing poorly at the Box Office and is hardly making the cash registers ring.
In this backdrop, a picture of Aamir Khan praying started doing rounds online with a claim that he was seeking blessings of the Almighty to tide over the poor run of the film. Khan can be seen holding a thaali in his hand while praying in the viral picture. Many users are mocking the star for turning against the same principles that he preached in his 2014 blockbuster PK.
A Facebook user posted the viral picture with the caption: ये तो पीके मे दिखा रहा था कि पूजा करना बेकार है मंदिरो मे सब गंदा धंधा होता है। दूध जल चढाना गलत है तो अब क्या हुआ? मूवी पिटते ही हाथ मे पूजा की थाली आ गयी।
(English Translation: He was showing in PK that worshipping is useless, and all dirty business is done in temples. Offering water and milk is wrong, so what happened now? As soon as the movie was beaten, the plate of worship came in hand.)
You can find the picture here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral image and found the claim to be misleading.
On looking closely at the image we can see a partial watermark of Bollywood Hungama attached to the bottom. Running a Google Keyword Search with relevant keywords led us to a photo gallery titled ‘Aamir Khan graces Navratri Pooja in Vadodara’ published on the official website of Bollywood Hungama– an Indian Bollywood entertainment website. One of the images in the gallery matches exactly with the viral image.
Although the exact timeline of the images is not given, this hints that the image was taken during the Navaratri celebrations in Vadodara, Gujarat.
Taking a cue from this, we searched online about Aamir Khan participating in such a celebration. Our search led us to one September 25, 2017, YouTube video titled ‘Aamir Khan takes part in Vadodara Navratri Festival – ANI News’ published on the official channel of the Indian news agency- ANI.
The description of the video states that Aamir Khan took part in Navratri Puja in Vadodara, and even performed aarti on the occasion of Durga Puja. The actor also promoted his then-upcoming film Secret Superstar in the city.
Finally, we came across a news report titled ‘’What an atmosphere’: Aamir performs aarti, celebrates Navratri festival in Vadodara’ published in The Deccan Chronicle on September 25, 2017. The news report covered Khan’s visit to Vadodara, and also mentioned his feelings about performing Garba for the first time in Vadodara.
A part of the image published in the news article matches exactly with the viral image. Thereby proving that the latter is not recent, but from 2017, when Aamir Khan visited Vadodara.
Therefore, based on our investigation, we can conclusively say that the viral image is being shared with misleading claim.
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