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| - Fact Check: No, this is not George Foreman and Ricky Ponting singing a popular Bollywood song
While more and more artists are now making covers of hit Bollywood tracks with unique twists, what is not an everyday event is watching two "foreigners" singing a popular Hindi number.
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India Today Fact Check
While the man singing in the video is USA-born Bollywood singer Jeffrey Iqbal, the man on the table is Jomy George - a tabla player from Kerala. They are not Ricky Ponting and George Foreman.
While more and more artists are now making covers of hit Bollywood tracks with unique twists, what is not an everyday event is watching two “foreigners” singing a popular Hindi number.
If a video doing the rounds of social media is to be believed, while former Australian Cricketer Ricky Ponting is singing one of actor Shah Rukh Khan's most famous Bollywood numbers "Mitwa", former American professional boxer George Foreman is playing the tabla alongside.
The caption to one such video reads, “On tabla is Boxer George Foreman and Australian Cricketer Ricky Ponting is singing MITWA. Can you believe it? Awesome....#RickyPonting #GeorgeForeman #MusicIsLife.”
On tabla is Boxer George Foreman
and
Australian Cricketer Ricky Ponting is singing MITWA. Can you believe it?
Awesome.....#RickyPonting #GeorgeForeman #MusicIsLife pic.twitter.com/0XvijfIfJP
— (@Pawankumar_1305) December 12, 2020
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the claim is false. While the singer in the video is USA-born Bollywood singer Jeffrey Iqbal, the man on the tabla is Jomy George - a tabla player from Kerala, India.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA PROBE
With the help of the InVid tool and appropriate keywords, we found that the video is six years old. The same video was uploaded on the verified Facebook page of Jeffrey Iqbal, a USA-born Bollywood singer on December 12, 2014.
The caption to the video identifies the two men as Jomy George and Jeffrey Iqbal.
The caption reads, “The Black Guy and White Guy series kicked off this year with #mitwa Bringing it back for round TWO Get ready for some new stuff soon WITH Jomy George Music and Jeffrey Iqbal LOVE YOU GUYS! #unitythrumusic #share #hollywoodTObollywood”
On January 2, 2015, Jeffrey posted another video of the two men where he mentioned the “mitwa” video. In this video, Jeffrey can be heard saying, “A while ago we did a 30-second clip ''mitwa”. He was called the back guy; I was called the white guy. But, to tell you our names, this is Jomy and I am Jeffrey.”
We also found a clarification post by Jeffery on June 1, 2016, where he says his “mitwa” video is circulating on social media with the claim that he is Ricky Ponting.
“I am not Ricky Ponting... Spread the word! #jeffreyiqbal There has been crazy viral activity about this video saying that i am Ricky Ponting the cricket player... I think its hilarious, but I want my friends to let everybody know who this really is... ME! Share the video with the post This singer is #jeffreyiqbal not #rickyponting Spread the word,” the post reads.
We also found a 2016 report by The Quint on the duo’s “The White Guy and Black Guy Series”.
On July 14, 2016, Deccan Chronicle had also published an interview of Jomy, the man playing tabla in the viral video. According to Deccan Chronicle, Jomy is from Ernakulam in Kerala and is the son of yesteryear musician KP George.
Here is a photo collage of George Foreman and Ricky Ponting.
Thus, it is clear that the men in the viral video are not boxer George Foreman and cricketer Ricky Ponting but USA born Bollywood singer Jeffrey Iqbal and Jomy George, a tabla player from Kerala.
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