Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
KBC contestant Prasun Tripathi showed Sandeep Lamichhane’s image as his cricket idol.
Fact
No, viral video is edited. Tripathi actually showed the photo of Rohit Sharma during KBC season 13, Episode 24.
A video allegedly showing a contestant of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) telling host Amitabh Bachchan that he is a die-hard fan of Nepali cricketer Sandeep Lamaichhane, is going viral on TikTok.
TikTok user @manju.pandey362 posted a video showing a clip from Hindi language television game show Kaun Banega crorepati in which host Amitabh Bachchan asks the contestant who his favourite cricketer is. The contestant says, “Sir, I won’t take his name but I can show you his picture.” In response Bachchan says, “So you carry him in your pocket.” The contestant says, “He is my Guru [Master].” Then, he takes out his favourite cricketer’s photo and shows it to Bachchan. And the video shows Sandeep Lamichhane’s photo implying that the contestant showed Lamichhane’s photo to Bachchan.
Again Bachchan asks the contestant if he has ever met him in response he says, “Sir, I have never had the opportunity.” Then, Bachchan says, “I am going to call him and see if you can talk with him or not.” Then the video shows a clip of Sandeep Lamichhane talking, while Bachhan says, “This is Prasaun Tripathi, and you won’t believe how big a fan he is of yours. You know he carries your image in his wallet.” Bachchan tells Prasun to talk with Sandeep who is on video call. In response, Prasun says, “Who would talk with the god?” The video goes on to show a series of images of Sandeep Lamichhane. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Why blame you when your bad fate has been determined? Always with Sandy.”
The video posted on April 1 has garnered 32.6k likes, 1357 users have shared it and 589 users have commented on it. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker conducted a search on YouTube by using clues from the name of the contestant. The search led us to a short video, dated October 12, 2023, published on the YouTube channel named KBC India. On checking the video, we found that Prasun Tripathi actually showed the image of his favourite cricketer Rohit Sharma. He tells how he tries to copy Sharma while playing cricket in his locality.
We, then, found another video, dated September 22, 2021, published on YouTube channel named Bollywood Now. The video titled ‘KBC Promo: Rohit Sharma’s surprise visit makes contestant Prasun Tripathi happy’ resembled the viral video.
Further, we found an article, dated September 24, 2021, published in India Today online, which reported that Host Amitabh Bachchan fulfilled the wish of contestant Prasun Tripthi to meet cricketer Rohit Sharma, who gave him his gloves.
Thus, our findings showed that the video was edited to give the impression that KBC contestant Tripath showed the image of Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma and not Nepali cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane.
Conclusion
No, KBC contestant Prasun Tripathi didn’t show the photo of Sandeep Lamichhane as his idol. The viral video is edited.
Result: Altered Video
Sources
KBC India/YouTube, Oct 12, 2023
Bollywood Now/YouTube, Sept 22, 20
Set India/YouTube, Sept 25, 2021
India Today, Sept 24, 2021
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
