Amid military tensions between India and Pakistan, the managers of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on May 9 announced the postponement of the 18th season of the IPL for a week. The first match after the break was played between Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on May 18, in which Punjab Kings won by 10 runs.
Right after this, some media channels ran visuals of Bollywood actress and Punjab Kings owner Preity Zinta embracing Rajasthan Royals' 14-year-old sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who had played an explosive cameo of 40 runs from 15 balls in the match.
In an article on its website, Republic Bharat stated, 'After the match, Preity Zinta came to meet Vaibhav Suryavanshi and during this time she shook hands with Vaibhav and hugged him'. The channel also shared it on its official X handle @Republic_Bharat. The outlet has now deleted this article.
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The Times of India's Maharashtra Times, TV9 Gujarati, and Jagbani Punjab Kesari also published news reports making similar claims.
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The photos are widespread on Instagram, Facebook, and X with similar claims.
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Fact Check
Alt News noticed that Preity Zinta had replied to Republic Bharat's post taking umbrage at the outlet amplifying a 'fake news' and a 'morphed photo'. She wrote, "I am surprised that now news channels are also using morphed images and featuring them as news items."
To crosscheck the actor's claim, we looked for the post-match video uploaded on May 19 on the official X handle of Rajasthan Royals, @rajasthanroyals. In it, Preity Zinta and Vaibhav Suryavanshi are seen shaking hands and talking. However, the two are not seen hugging each other in the video.
We found a longer video on the YouTube channel of one of the staff working for IPL 2025. In the video, Zinta is seen going up to Vaibhav Suryavanshi, shaking hands with and talking to him, after which she is seen going back to members of her own team to greet them.
Alt News examined the viral images.
- We found that Vaibhav Suryavanshi is often seen with a black thread tied on his right hand and a watch on his left hand, while the viral photos show the exact opposite.
- Apart from this, the brand logo of Tata IPL 2025 and Jio is also inverted (mirrored).
- We compared it with the Rajasthan Royals team jersey. We found that the team jersey has the Jio and Tata IPL 2025 logo on the right sleeve and the Red Bull logo on the left sleeve.
- In the viral photos, the Jio and Tata IPL logos are seen in inverted letters on the left hand.
To sum up, the viral photos are morphed. Edited and distorted images were circulated to claim Preity Zinta hugged Vaibhav Suryavanshi. A number of prominent media houses shared it as 'news' without any verification. There are clear signs in the viral image of it being morphed, and they are hard to miss, yet it was used by these outlets.
Editor's Note: While one may question what is newsworthy in the image of two persons hugging, and what is the need to sensationalize it, we understand that it remains a matter of editorial choice. Running a morphed image involving a minor (Vaibhav is 14), however, is lousy and unjustifiable.
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