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| - Fact Check: Shaktimaan struggles with his fake avatars on social media
An appeal to boycott the Bachchans has gone viral on social media, purportedly from the Twitter account of actor Mukesh Khanna, who became synonymous with "Shaktimaan". India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral tweet was made by a handle impersonating Khanna.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral tweet was made by a handle impersonating “Shaktimaan”. Khanna never called for any such boycott.
Veteran actor and Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan has come under attack over her remarks on drug abuse in Bollywood.
Amid this, an appeal to boycott the Bachchans has gone viral on social media, purportedly from the Twitter account of actor Mukesh Khanna, who became synonymous with "Shaktimaan", an Indian superhero serial aired in the late 90s.
The tweet, posted from the handle "@Real_Khanna1" with the actor's image on the Twitter profile, says, "I am boycotting Jaya Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan. Who is with me???" Till the time of filing this article, the tweet had garnered 15,000 likes and over 4,000 retweets.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral tweet was made by a handle impersonating Khanna. The veteran actor has never called for any such boycott.
During our investigation, we found there are four fake Twitter accounts running in Khanna's name. One of them has nearly two times the followers than the actor's original Twitter handle.
India Today spoke to Khanna, who said he has only one Twitter account since 2018, which is "actmukeshkhanna". The following are the details of the four fake Twitter handles impersonating "Shaktimaan".
Account 1: @Real_Khanna1
Opened only recently, this account () has been running fictitious campaigns, issuing boycott calls for several actors. A day before calling for a boycott of the Bachchans, it had asked followers to shun the "Khan gangs" of Bollywood.
This Twitter handle has over 3,000 followers at present, and the number is only growing fast.
Khanna completely dissociates himself from this handle and the posts giving boycott calls. "I don't know who is running this and who has created this account. But I have not posted any such statement," the actor said.
Account 2: @TheMukeshK
The Twitter handle "@TheMukeshK" is active since May 2015, and so far, has nearly 50,000 followers, which is almost double the number of followers than Mukesh Khanna's original handle.
While "@TheMukeshK" has so far made over 46,000 tweets, the actor's original handle "actmukeshkhanna" has put up less than 500 tweets since it was opened in November 2018.
The posts in "@TheMukeshK" are highly political and propagandist in nature with pro-Right inclinations.
This Twitter handle was opened in August 2013 and remained active till March last year. With over 2,000 followers, it had put up more than 10,000 tweets, with Khanna's picture on the profile, and pretending to be the actor's original Twitter handle.
Account 3: @M_Khannaa
Account 4: @bheeshmint
This account was opened in 2011, but so far remains inactive with no posts or followers. This handle too has Khanna's picture in the profile, and the bio says, "Owner, Bheeshm International", which is the actor's production house. Prior to "Shaktimaan", Khanna became popular for playing the role of "Bhishma Pitamah" in the serial "Mahabharat".
On boycott calls
Khanna has categorically denied his association with any of the four impersonating accounts. He said he is looking for ways to lodge a complaint and take action against the accounts.
When India Today asked him about his personal opinion on the boycott calls against some Bollywood stars, Khanna said people should stop watching films of those actors who openly flaunt and support drugs.
"Since it is the public who made us stars, only they can punish those irresponsible actors who are caught taking drugs. At that level, I support boycotting their films," added "Shaktimaan".
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