Photoshopped endorsement: Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone shown campaigning for BJP

A photograph of Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone has been posted by a page on Facebook. The photograph shows the two sporting saffron scarves on which ‘Vote for BJP N Modi’ is printed. The text accompanying the image reads, ‘कमल का बटन दबाकर देश की तरक्की में भागीदार बनें’ (Press the lotus button, become a part of the nation’s progress- translated).

The post is by the page Ek Bihari 100 Pe Bhari. The page has a rather modest following of a little over 36,000. The post however has been shared over 4000 times already. It has also been posted on the group Main Bhi Chowkidar. A post by an individual user has garnered over 2600 shares.

Update: Deepika Padukone visited JNU in solidarity with students injured during violence in the campus by masked goons on the intervening night of January 5-6. The actor has attracted massive criticism by supporters of the BJP. The same image is circulating with a caption that mocks those targetting the actor. It says, “Deepika Padukone was a nationalist in 2019 and today after visiting JNU she has become anti-national? Wow hypocrites.”

[Translated from: 2019 में दीपिका पादुकोण देशभक्त थी और आज #JNU में आने के बाद देशद्रोही हो गयी नचनियां हो गयी???? वाह रे दोगलो हद हो गयी।।]

Photoshopped image

As expected, the image is digitally altered. Alt News reverse searched the image on Google and found the real photograph, which was clicked on November 30, 2018. Singh and Padukone had visited the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai, where the picture was clicked. It was carried by several media publications.

As is evident from the image above, the duo had sported plain saffron scarves and not BJP scarves. The original picture was tampered with. The two images- photoshopped and real, have been posted together below for comparison.

[Update: The claim viral after Deepika Padukone’s JNU visit has been added to the story. This article was updated on January 9, 2020.]