Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
OTT platform Hotstar bags streaming rights for Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s wedding, defeating billionaire Mukesh Ambani in an auction organised by the Reliance Industries chairman himself.
The wedding is on Friday, July 12, at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker ran a keyword search for “Hotstar Ambani wedding streaming”, which did not lead us to any credible news reports about such a deal, however, we came across this June 29, 2024 article by satirical web portal Fauxy headlined, “BREAKING: Hotstar wins streaming rights of Anant Ambani’s wedding”.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold. Ambani took away IPL rights from us, resulting in millions of lost users. Now, we will profit from the wedding; he spent millions on marketing and he himself will pay to watch his own son’s wedding. The wedding will be live streamed on 12th July, where viewers will be able to comment on preparations just like angry ‘fufaji’ in any wedding,” Hotstar CEO reportedly told Fauxy. “Currently short on funds, the Ambanis are organising a mass wedding for the underprivileged to garner positive PR and generate some ad revenue for their son’s wedding by streaming it on Jio Cinema,” further read the article, which confirms that it is satire. The tweet can be seen here. A look through the website shows that the portal regularly posts satirical articles about news events.
Result: Satire
Sources
The Fauxy article, June 29, 2024
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
