India TV Fact Check: A selfie of Bollywood actor Sunny Deol is widely circulating online, featuring former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the background, standing in a farm field. However, when India TV fact-checked this video it was confirmed that it is altered.
What is going viral?
A photo of Deol and Dhoni is going viral on the social media platform. In this photo, the actor is seen taking a selfie with a cricketer while standing in the middle of the field. A Facebook user shared the photo with the caption, "A like is definitely due for Sunny Deol and Mahendra Singh Dhoni."
This is going viral
India TV did investigation
India TV's fact-check team has investigated the circulating selfie featuring Sunny Deol and Dhoni. We did the Reverse Image Search of the viral picture and we found a similar photo on the the official X handle of Chennai Super Kings. In the original image, cricketer Ravindra Jadeja can be seen taking the selfie with MS Dhoni in the field and not Sunny Deol.
However, the image shared by Chennai Super Kings was also found to be edited. Upon further investigation, the original photo was located on Ravindra Jadeja’s official Instagram handle, posted on August 25, 2024. The original image features only Jadeja taking a selfie on his farm, with no one else visible in the background.
After cropping the image and conducting another Reverse Image Search, we discovered a news article from India Today dated March 17, 2022, which shows Dhoni standing with a man in his field. The article was titled, "MS Dhoni's Holi gift to Ranchi: CSK captain to open his farmhouse to the public for three days."
Original photo found on India Today
What came out in fact check?
The fact check conducted by India TV confirmed that the viral selfie of Sunny Deol and MS Dhoni was edited. In the original picture, the cricketer was in the filed with another man. Users are advised to be cautious of such videos.
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