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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

Recent picture of Deepika Padukone posing in saffron-coloured heels

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post presented a picture of Deepika Padukone in saffron-coloured heels as recent, and linked it to the controversy over her saffron-coloured costume in the song “Besharam Rang” from *Pathaan*. It further claimed that she had published the picture in response to protests. The investigation identifies the picture as an older image from the 2019 Cannes International Film Festival, rather than a new image responding to the film controversy. To check the image’s history, the review reports conducting a reverse image search. That search found the same picture in an Indian Express article from May 2019, which described it as a picture of Padukone at Cannes. The review also reports that her stylist, Shaleena Nathani, shared the same picture on 17 May 2019. These earlier records support the conclusion that the image predates the *Pathaan* controversy and was misrepresented as recent.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaCulture & entertainment

Kabosu, The Origin Of The Doge Meme, Passed Away!!

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined a Facebook post reported on December 31 as saying Kabosu had died on December 30. It says the post did not name Kabosu, but appeared after news of her illness and was understood to imply that the famous Shiba Inu had died. The review’s conclusion concerns that December 2022 claim—not whether Kabosu ever died. To check the post’s image, the publisher says it used reverse image search. The image was traced to a stock-photo Shiba Inu, not Kabosu. The review also cited an Instagram update from Kabosu’s owner, Atsuko Sato, posted on December 30: Sato described Kabosu eating, drinking, walking, and recovering after becoming ill. Together, the image check and the owner’s contemporaneous update supported the conclusion that the post’s implication was untrue at that time. The supplied review text includes a later update that changes the broader timeline: it says Sato announced Kabosu’s death on May 24, 2024. Thus the review’s verdict applies to the earlier post and its time-specific implication; it should not be read as saying Kabosu never died.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Shah Rukh Khan said that social boycott calls do not affect him

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a clip in which Shah Rukh Khan says he is not affected by calls to boycott his films. The review identifies the clip as part of a 2016 ETC Bollywood interview with film critic Komal Nahta, recorded while Khan was promoting Fan. The discussion was about whether boycott calls against his earlier film Dilwale affected its performance—not about the later calls to boycott Pathaan that accompanied the clip’s circulation. In the interview, Khan’s answer was more qualified than the clip’s apparent standalone message. He joked that boycott calls could be offered as an excuse when a film performed poorly, and suggested that perhaps the filmmakers had not made a good film. He also said he was not swayed by such calls. The review therefore treats the statement as a response to a specific question about Dilwale, rather than an unqualified comment on boycott campaigns in general. The review concludes that the clip is old footage presented in the context of Pathaan, and rates the post’s claim MISLEADING. The distinction is between what Khan said in the 2016 interview and the newer context in which the video was shared: the clip was real, but its framing could make the remark seem to concern Pathaan.