Skip to main content

PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Culture & entertainment fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about culture & entertainment. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,169 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Video of a contestant of Britain’s Got Talent reciting verses form the Quran

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing a contestant reciting Quranic verses on Britain’s Got Talent, with the judges and audience reacting emotionally. FACTLY reports that it checked the video’s authenticity and found it was not footage of that event: the clip combined separately sourced material, rather than documenting a Quran recitation performance on the show. The review identifies the judges’ reactions as footage from The X Factor UK. It says a YouTube search found footage of that show in which the judges react similarly to a different contestant’s singing performance. The person shown reciting verses, by contrast, appears in a parody video posted by Indonesian YouTuber Aya Ibrahim. The review says that video was posted on 11 December 2019 and that its title explicitly described it as a parody. The review also points to the video’s end credits, which name Ibrahim as its scriptwriter, director, and make-up artist. According to FACTLY, he digitally combined the judges’ reactions from another talent show with footage of himself singing in front of a Britain’s Got Talent hoarding. It reports that Ibrahim also posted a shorter version on Instagram titled “BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT PARODY.” Thus, the apparent connection to the show is created by editing and presentation, not evidence that the performance took place on Britain’s Got Talent.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Dilip Kumar’s last video before his death

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns footage showing Dilip Kumar being fed by his wife while he is in a hospital bed, which was circulated as his last video before his death. The review identifies the footage as dating from September 2013, when Kumar was admitted to Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital after a heart attack—not as a video recorded shortly before his death in 2021. The review describes a reverse image search of screenshots from the circulating video. That search found a YouTube upload with matching visuals, titled “Dilip Kumar Video Hospital Room Recuperating.” The upload’s description places Kumar in a Mumbai hospital on September 21, 2013. The review also reports finding the same video in a post from Kumar’s official Twitter account, published on September 22, 2013, which described it as footage from the previous day. The review says Kumar was admitted on September 15, 2013, and discharged on September 26 after his condition improved. He died on July 7, 2021, aged 98. It further notes that videos of him appeared on his Twitter and Facebook timelines after the 2013 hospital incident. The identified footage therefore predates his death by years and was not his last video.

Fact CrescendoCulture & entertainment

Claim: Jyothika not questioned about the maintenance cost of Tanjore Big Temple

Publisher’s rating: Missing Context

The review examined a social-media post alleging that Jyothika had questioned why the Thanjavur Big Temple needed maintenance, and contrasting that alleged remark with a report of proposed Chennai-area parks. The post, attributed in the review to Sami Nathan on July 4, 2021, placed the temple statement in Jyothika’s mouth. The review checked the claim against a recording of her speech at the JFW Awards Movie 2020 event, which it said had been uploaded to YouTube in July 2020. In the video, Jyothika praised the temple’s beauty and its upkeep, then described seeing poor conditions at a government hospital during a shoot. The review reports that she urged people to spend on government buildings, schools and hospitals as well as temples. It concludes that she did not ask why the temple’s maintenance was being funded, nor tell people not to donate to temples; rather, she called for public services to receive comparable attention and spending. The review also checked the park-cost comparison. It reports that Minister K. N. Nehru described an approximate ₹2,500 crore estimate for work involving several waterways and surrounding areas, and said the estimate had not been fully assessed. The review says he did not describe a finalized plan or allocated funding. That context undercuts the social post’s presentation of the park figure as an announced, funded project, but the decisive evidence on Jyothika’s alleged temple remark is the recording of her speech.

FactcrescendoCulture & entertainment

திப்பு சுல்தானின் உண்மையான உருவப்படமா இது?

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a photograph shared as the “real portrait” of Tipu Sultan, reportedly said to be in a London museum. The review says the image was posted on Facebook by an account named CWF QATAR on 6 July 2021, and that others were sharing it too. The investigation compared the circulated image with images identified as showing Tipu Sultan and examined where the circulated image appeared online. The review reports that a Google reverse-image search found the same image on Getty Images. There, the person depicted was identified as Sultan Seyyid Hamed bin Thuwain, who ruled Zanzibar from 1893 to 1896—not Tipu Sultan, who ruled Mysore. The review says it separately searched for an authentic image of Tipu Sultan and found one on Getty Images, then compared the two photographs. Its conclusion is that the post had misidentified a portrait of the Zanzibar ruler as Tipu Sultan’s. The excerpt describes the image-search findings and comparison, but does not provide Getty Images’ image captions or links to the individual images. The conclusion therefore reflects the identification and comparison reported by the fact-check, rather than independently inspectable image records in the supplied text.

Fact CrescendoCulture & entertainment

Claim: Zanzibar Sultan picture shared now as Tipu Sultan

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined a social-media post claiming that an image showed a genuine photograph of Tipu Sultan, taken in 1789 and held at a London museum. It reports that the post was shared on Facebook on July 6, 2021, and says the image was circulated with captions identifying the man as Tipu Sultan. The review’s conclusion addresses that specific image, rather than the general question of whether authentic portraits of Tipu Sultan exist. The review explains that it rejected the identification because the image was a photograph, while its earlier research had established that the first photograph was made 27 years after Tipu Sultan’s death. It then describes its image-identification process: researchers submitted the picture to reverse-image search and found results identifying the man as Seyyid Hamed bin Thuwain, a sultan of Zanzibar. The review also says the same image appeared on Getty Images, a photo-sales platform. On that basis, the review concluded that the pictured man was not Tipu Sultan and that the image did not support the claim about an original Tipu Sultan photograph in a London museum. Its explanation identifies the man as a Zanzibar sultan, but the supplied text does not give further details about the photograph’s date or provenance.

YouturnCulture & entertainment

சீனு ராமசாமி ட்வீட். ஒளிப்பதிவு திருத்த மசோதாவை மத்திய அரசு தடை செய்யவிட்டால் திரைத்துறையை விட்டே விலகுவேன். என்னை போல் பல இயக்குனர்களும், நடிகர்களும் திரைத்துறையை விட்டு விலகுவர்.

Publisher’s rating: Fake