Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor passed away on the morning of April 30. Soon after, former actor and Congress leader Nagma shared a video of Rishi Kapoor claiming, “Clip of last night, with doctors at the Reliance Foundation Hospital, Mumbai.”

The clip also became part of several media reports. India Today and News Nation aired it as Kapoor’s video shot the night before he passed away. India Today later took down its broadcast from YouTube.

ABP News, Free Press Journal and The Tribune initially reported that the video was Kapoor’s “last video” but later changed the reports. While The Tribune deleted its tweet and posted a new one sans the word ‘last’, the others changed their reports. However, the URL of the report by Free Press Journal carries the word ‘last’.

Among the Hindi media outlets that carried similar reports were News18, Amar Ujala, Asianet News, Navbharat Times and News24. The report by Amar Ujala was later taken down and Navbharat Times has updated its report.

The same clip was shared by Congress leaders Kishore Upadhyay and Uday Bhanu Chib. Both claimed that the video was shot the night before Kapoor passed away.

The clip is also massively viral on social media. From the Facebook page Social World, it has drawn over 4 lakh views and 12,000 shares as of this writing.

Video form February

In the video, the man is singing ‘Tere Dard Se Dil Aabad Raha’ from Kapoor’s 1992 film ‘Deewana’. The clip was shot in February. This was pointed out by a Twitter user. Below is a screengrab that shows the upload date – February 29, 2020 – on YouTube by ‘Dk Kumar Sanu’. He is the same person in the video. Another clip from his channel shows him singing on the occasion of Holi. The cover picture of the channel is his photograph with Rishi Kapoor.

A video of Rishi Kapoor from February was shared by several Congress leaders and media outlets as the late actor’s last video. Ironically, India Today misreported the video and also ‘fact-checked’ it. Below is a tweet by India Today News Director Rahul Kanwal debunking Nagma’s tweet claiming that the video was shot the night before Kapoor passed away.

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About the Author

Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.