Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Following the release of Alia Bhatt-Ranbir Kapoor starrer Brahmastra last week, social media platforms are swamped with public reviews of the movie. While some praised the Ayan Mukerji directorial, others have been sharing visuals of empty theatres and negative people’s responses. In this backdrop, a 33-second long video is being widely shared claiming to show people’s dismissive reactions after watching a movie.
Note: The videos carry abusive language and have not been embedded by Newschecker in this article.
Several Twitter users shared the video claiming to show honest review of Brahmastra
Links to such tweets can be found here, here, here and here.
Another video claiming to show a disappointed elderly man’s review of Brahmastra has also been doing the rounds on social media platforms since the day of the release.
Links to such posts can be found here, here, here and here.
Despite social media calls for boycott, the superhero drama was able to mint Rs 75 crore globally on Day 1. Reportedly, the Brahmastra’s 5-day total collection stands over Rs 150 crore. The movie revolves around Shiva (Ranbir Kapoor) who sets out in search of love and self-discovery. Mukerji’s ambitious project also features Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna and Mouni Roy in pivotal roles, along with the cameo of Shah Rukh Khan.
Fact Check/Verification
Newschecker began by carefully analysing the first video video and around 8 seconds into the clip the elderly man can be heard saying “Chasma ka gana last me daala hai….” (the song on glasses has been put at the end). Further, on scanning through the comment sections of posts associated with the viral video, we found a reply by user @harshantsharma7 to a tweet by @SumanRastogi6, stating “Fake video. This is a old video of siddharth malhotra’s film Baar baar dekho. (sic)”
Taking clues from the same, we conducted Google reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video along with the keywords “Baar Baar Dekho Review, which led us to an article by ScoopWhoop, dated September 10, 2016, titled ‘This Old Uncle’s Deadly Review For Baar Baar Dekho Is Better Than The Movie Itself.’
Displaying some stills of the old man’s ‘review’ from the viral clip, the article elaborated “Most of us make our dissatisfaction pretty vocal when a movie fails to live up to our expectations. Just like this elderly gentleman here who’d gone to watch Baar Baar Dekho with lots of hopes.”
In the pictures we noticed ‘Viral Bollywood’ written on the mike, which has been blurred out in the viral video. Following this, we looked up “Baar Baar Dekho Review” on the official YouTube channel of Viral Bollywood which yielded a video uploaded on September 9, 2016. Titled ‘Baar Baar Dekho Full Movie Public Review | First day First Show | Katrina Kaif, Sidharth Malhotra,’ the 7-minute-35-second-long video featured extended versions of the snippets seen in the viral video.
A shorter version of the same focussed on ‘Public Abusive’ was uploaded by Viral Bollywood on September 11, 2016.
Notably, portions from the original video where ‘reviewers’ can be heard saying “Baar Baar Dekho,” or “Kala Chasma” have been edited out in the viral clip to mislead people into believing that it shows the public’s reaction to Brahmastra.
Our earlier search for “Baar Baar Dekho Review” on the YouTube channel of Viral Bollywood also threw up another video, dated March 24, 2017 , titled ‘Watch It At Your Own Risk | LOL | Beiimaan Love, Baar Baar Dekho, Banjo, Sultan movie Review.’ At 3:36 minutes, we were able to spot the keyframes of the second video where the elderly man can be heard saying “Story ka pata hi nahi lag raha ki kya story hai … (the story is not known). As per the video, this was the old man’s review for Udta Punjab.
The original video was uploaded by the channel on June 17, 2016, titled ‘Udta Punjab Full Movie Review | Public Review | Shahid kapoor, Alia bhatt, Diljit Dosanjh & kareena.’ The viral clip claiming to show “Honest Brahmastra review” can be seen at 9:40 minutes in the video.
Conclusion
Viral posts claiming to show “honest, best Brahmastra reviews” are false. The videos show public response to Baar Baar Dekho and Udta Punjab.
Result: False
Sources
Tweet By @harshantsharma7, Dated September 13, 2022
Article By ScoopWhoop, Dated September 10, 2016
YouTube Video By Viral Bollywood, Dated September 9, 2016
YouTube Video By Viral Bollywood, Dated June 17, 2016
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
