The year of 2020 has been difficult goes without saying, but it has also brought with it the deaths of many Bollywood actors like Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput and playback singer SP Balasubramanium. While many mourned the death of their favourites, we also saw several fake news claiming from cricketer Kapil Dev had died, Naseeruddin Shah's death and that Hema Malini taking severely ill.
BOOM brings you the top 5 hoaxes about celebrities that went viral in 2020:
1. Naseeruddin Shah Hospitalised
The last week of April 2020, witnessed two big losses fro Bollywood, as actors Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor died one day apart on April 29 and 30 respectively. While fans were still recovering from this, tweets claiming actor Naseeruddin Shah was hospitalised started doing the rounds.
Viral messages said that Shah, who has not been in the best of his health lately, was admitted to the hospital after his condition deteriorated on April 30. Bharat Samachar's Twitter handle, with a follower of almost 2 lakhs, was one of the first to tweet that Shah had been rushed to the hospital.
BOOM debunked the same by speaking to Shah's longtime secretary Jayraj Patil who said the veteran actor was doing fine and added that Shah was stuck in their farm house located between Karjat and Pune due to the lockdown. Shah and his son Vivaan Shah both took to social media to dismiss the rumours, calling them fake.
2. Hema Malini Hospitalised
Rumours of actor Hema Malini being admitted to the hospital due to heart problems and breathing issued surfaced, days actor Amitabh Bachchan and his family tested COVID-19 positive.
The rumours used a 2015 image of Hema Malini, when she survived a freak accident in 2015 and claimed that her family, actor Dharmendra and daugter Esha and Ahana Deol requested everyone to pray for her speedy recovery.
BOOM spoke to Hema Malini herself who dismissed the rumour and said that she was in perfect health.
The actor also shared a video on Instagram and her family tweeted reassuring fans that Hema Malini was well.
3. Hoax Claiming Kapil Dev Died After A Heart Attack
Days after Kapil Dev suffered a cardiac arrest and underwent a successful angioplasty on October 23, Facebook posts about his demise started doing the rounds. Several fans expressed their grief as they bid farewell to the ace cricketer as they believed him to be dead.
BOOM debunked the viral hoax and found a video where Kapil Dev himself tweeted a video informing everyone that he was feeling better and was on the road to recovery. The former Indian skipper in the video, greeted his former India teammates from the 1983 World Cup, and thanked everyone for their wishes.
Read more here.
4. The Curious Case Of Mulayam Singh Yadav's Death
The death of a Legislative Council member from Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh caused more flutter that usual. The reason being his name, Mulayam Singh Yadav.
His passing led to a viral rumour that it was former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav who died. The rumour took a drastic turn when the Wikipedia page of the Samajwadi Party supremo to be updated – twice – before the error was rectified. With the deceased MLC also a Samajwadi Party member, the official Facebook page of the party posted a tribute, without clarifying explicitly the identity of the deceased, leading to more confusion and aggravating the rumours.
BOOM debunked the rumour by speaking to Anurag Bhadauriya, official spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party, who said that Mulayam Singh Yadav, the former chief minister was alive and said that the confusion arose after the death of a 92-year-old MLC who shared his name with the former chief minister of the state.
Read the detailed fact check here.
5. Former Chief Minister Of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
A deliberate attempt was made to claim Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, former chief minister of West Bengal passed away. The post started going viral after the Left leader fell ill on December 9.
The post designed to look like a tribute to the leader, had Bangla text on it that translated to, "Our very own Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is not there at his house any more, admitted in the hospital". The post was designed such that the font of the words that Bhattacharjee was admitted to the hospital and is not at home, was extremely tiny, almost unreadble.
The CPI(M) leader was released from the hospital on December 15.
Read BOOM's fact check here.
