Morphed poster of 2015 film 'Muhammed' viral - Alt News
Kalim Ahmed
17th June 2022 / 7:35 pm / Last updated: 18th June 2022
Against the backdrop of the alleged derogatory remarks made by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma about the Prophet of Islam which caused a diplomatic stir for India, an alleged movie poster that appears to be on the life of Prophet Muhammad is viral on social media with various claims.
Twitter user @Narpats62770513 shared the poster with a caption in Hindi that reads, “When the trailer looks like this, imagine how will the movie be?”
जब ट्रेलर ऐसा है तो फिल्म कैसी होगी ? pic.twitter.com/iJ1crwfCTc
— ठाकुर साहब (@Narpats62770513) June 15, 2022
This poster is widely circulating on Twitter with various claims.
The poster is also viral on Facebook with similar claims.
We started with a keyword search on Google based on the text that is visible on the poster. This led us to the IMDB page of the film ‘Muhammed’ (2015), directed by the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker, Majid Majidi. The real movie poster is completely different from the one that is viral on social media.
The film has met with widespread criticism from Sunni Muslim groups, who believe any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous. Moreover, fatwas were also issued against Majidi as well as music composer AR Rahman for making the film. In 2020, Anil Deshmukh, then Home Minister of Maharashtra, had written to the Central Government, demanding a ban on the broadcast of the film.
We cropped the image and performed multiple Google reverse image searches which led us to an Instagram page of an Egyptian photographer named Omar ShEkoo. As per the caption, the photo was clicked during Eid prayers in 2019 at the Al-Tawheed Mosque in Cairo.
Rummaging through Omar’s Instagram page, we found another photo from the same event. It had the same caption as the previous image. This photo was posted four days after the first one. The child and the elderly man are visible in this image as well.
Alt News was able to get in touch with Omar through his Instagram page. He said that he indeed took the picture during Eid prayers in Cairo in 2019. “There is a large crowd praying during Eid and several people are accompanied by children. Kids like to play around and they might get lost so their guardians like to hold on to them as they pray. My father used to do the same to me. He used to hold on to me and I used to play around him,” he said. Omar had also shared the image on his Facebook page in June 2019.
The photo was used to edit the poster of the film ‘Muhammad’. It was lifted from social media and shared out of context in India amid the Nupur Sharma controversy.
Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc
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