A graphic featuring the logo of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hindi and a fake quote on the Boycott Bollywood trend, falsely attributed to actor Alia Bhatt, is viral on social media.
The post has been shared on social media with a claim that actor Alia Bhatt blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for orchestrating the 'Boycott Bollywood' trend and accused the party of wanting to shift the film industry to Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
BOOM found the claim to be fake. Issuing a statement, BBC Hindi mentioned the news as untrue and that the organisation did not run any such news story.
Actors Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor-starrer film 'Brahmastra Part-1: Shiva' hit the theatres on September 9 amid several boycott calls for the film. The actors also faced protests at the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain due to an old video that surfaced where Ranbir Kapoor spoke about being a beef eater. Netizens called for a boycott claiming their religious sentiments were hurt and demanded to prevent the film from becoming a successful one at the box office.
The fake quote in Hindi when translated reads, "BJP is behind the boycott gang, they want to shift the film industry to Noida, so 2-2 rupees bhakts are given responsibilities to troll entire day on social media.. This Modi will ruin the country: Alia Bhatt. (Original Text in Hindi: बॉयकॉट गैंग के पीछे बीजेपी का हाथ है वो फ़िल्म इंडस्ट्री को नोएडा शिफ्ट करना चाहती है, इसलिए 2-2₹ वाले भक्तों को सोशल __ मीडिया पर सारे दिन टोल करने का ठेका दिया है.. यह मोदी देश बर्बाद कर देगा :-आलिया भट्ट)
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Fact Check
BOOM performed a related keyword search in Hindi as stated in the viral post but found no credible news source mentioning the same comment made by actor Alia Bhatt.
We also did not come across any such BBC Hindi news article reporting the same as stated in the viral post.
Additionally, when we looked into BBC Hindi's social media accounts, we found a statement by BBC Hindi about the viral post.
Terming the viral post as 'Fake', BBC Hindi tweeted in Hindi, "FAKE NEWS ALERT. A statement is being shared on social media in the name of actor Alia Bhatt attributing it to BBC Hindi. It also uses a logo of BBC Hindi. But, this is fake and it has nothing to do with BBC Hindi."
(Original Text in Hindi: अभिनेत्री आलिया भट्ट का बयान बताते हुए इसे बीबीसी हिंदी के नाम से सोशल मीडिया पर शेयर किया जा रहा है. इसमें बीबीसी हिंदी के लोगो का भी इस्तेमाल किया गया है. लेकिन, ये फ़ेक है और इसका बीबीसी हिंदी से कोई संबंध नहीं है.)
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According to E Times, Alia Bhatt said there is no negative environment around the film and 'everything is positive' during a promotion of the 'Brahmastra' in Delhi.
