#FactCheck: Old Video of Ranbir Kapoor Refusing Prasad Falsely Linked to Recent Ganesh Chaturthi
Executive Summary
A video of actor Ranbir Kapoor is being shared on social media amid the ongoing Ganesh festivities across the country. The video is being shared with the claim that Ranbir Kapoor refused to accept prasad on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. CyberPeace Research found the claim to be misleading. Our research revealed that the viral video is from 2023. At the time, Ranbir Kapoor had attended a Ganpati puja at the T-Series office. After the puja, when he was handed a box of prasad, he gave the box to another person and said that he was on a diet.
Claim:
A user on the social media platform Facebook shared the video with the caption, “Ranbir Kapoor refused to eat prasad, saying, ‘I am on a diet.’” The post link, archive link and screenshot are provided below.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1563843065515757
Fact Check:
To verify the viral claim, we conducted a Google search using relevant keywords. During the search, we found a report published on the Dainik Hindustan website. According to the report, the Ambani family once again hosted a Ganpati celebration.Several Bollywood celebrities, including Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt, attended the event. Photographs from the celebration were also shared on social media. However, the clothes worn by Ranbir Kapoor in the photographs featured in the report are different from those seen in the viral video. The report link and screenshot are provided below.
To verify the viral claim, we conducted a reverse image search of keyframes from the video. During the search, we found the same video on the YouTube channel of Gujarati Midday, where it was published on September 25, 2023. The report link and screenshot are provided below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoBwpC-jr5A
According to the video description, actor Ranbir Kapoor, known for his role in the film ‘Animal’, visited the T-Series office for Ganpati darshan. Our research established that the video is from 2023 and is being shared on social media with a misleading claim by presenting it as a recent incident. At the end of our research, we found the same video on the YouTube channel of Ei Samay. It was published on September 25, 2023. The video also contains the same scene seen in the viral clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDsoRu8Aco
Conclusion
Our research found that the viral video is from 2023. At the time, Ranbir Kapoor attended a Ganpati puja at the T-Series office. After the puja, when he was handed a box of prasad, he gave the box to another person and said that he was on a diet.
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Introduction
Earlier this month, lawmakers in Colorado, a U.S. state, were summoned to a special legislative session to rewrite their newly passed Artificial Intelligence (AI) law before it even takes effect. Although the discussion taking place in Denver may seem distant, evolving regulations like this one directly address issues that India will soon encounter as we forge our own course for AI governance.
The Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act
Colorado became the first U.S. state to pass a comprehensive AI accountability law, set to come into force in 2026. It aims to protect people from bias, discrimination, and harm caused by predictive algorithms since AI tools have been known to reproduce societal biases by sidelining women from hiring processes, penalising loan applicants from poor neighbourhoods, or through welfare systems that wrongly deny citizens their benefits. But the law met resistance from tech companies who threatened to pull out form the state, claiming it is too broad in scope in its current form and would stifle innovation. This brings critical questions about AI regulation to the forefront:
- Who should be responsible when AI causes harm? Developers, deployers, or both?
- How should citizens seek justice?
- How can tech companies be incentivised to develop safe technologies?
Colorado’s governor has called a special session to update the law before it kicks in.
What This Means for India
India is on its path towards framing a dedicated AI-specific law or directions, and discussions are underway through the IndiaAI Mission, the proposed Digital India Act, committee set by the Delhi High Court on deepfake and other measures. But the dilemmas Colorado is wrestling with are also relevant here.
- AI uptake is growing in public service delivery in India. Facial recognition systems are expanding in policing, despite accuracy and privacy concerns. Fintech apps using AI-driven credit scoring raise questions of fairness and transparency.
- Accountability is unclear. If an Indian AI-powered health app gives faulty advice, who should be liable- the global developer, the Indian startup deploying it, or the regulator who failed to set safeguards?
- India has more than 1,500 AI startups (NASSCOM), which, like Colorado’s firms, fear that onerous compliance could choke growth. But weak guardrails could undermine public trust in AI altogether.
Lessons for India
India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT ( MEITy) favours a light-touch approach to AI regulation, and exploring and advancing ways for a future-proof guideline. Further, lessons from other global frameworks can guide its way.
- Colorado’s case shows us the necessity of incorporating feedback loops in the policy-making process. India should utilise regulatory sandboxes and open, transparent consultation processes before locking in rigid rules.
- It will also need to explore proportionate obligations, lighter for low-risk applications and stricter for high-risk use cases such as policing, healthcare, or welfare delivery.
- Europe’s AI Act is heavy on compliance, the U.S. federal government leans toward deregulation, and Colorado is somewhere in between. India has the chance to create a middle path, grounded in our democratic and developmental context.
Conclusion
As AI becomes increasingly embedded in hiring, banking, education, and welfare, opportunities for ordinary Indians are being redefined. To shape how this pans out, states like Tamil Nadu and Telangana have taken early steps to frame AI policies. Lessons will emerge from their initiative in addressing AI governance. Policy and regulation will always be contested, but contestations are a part of the process.
The Colorado debate shows us how participative law-making, with room for debate, revision, and iteration, is not a weakness but a necessity. For India’s emerging AI governance landscape, the challenge will be to embrace this process while ensuring that citizen rights and inclusion are balanced well with industry concerns. CyberPeace advocates for responsible AI regulation that balances innovation and accountability.
References
- https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-lawmakers-look-repeal-replace-controversial-artificial-intelligence-law/
- https://www.naag.org/attorney-general-journal/a-deep-dive-into-colorados-artificial-intelligence-act/
- https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/11/indias-advance-on-ai-regulation?lang=en
- https://the-captable.com/2024/12/india-ai-regulation-light-touch/
- https://indiaai.gov.in/article/tamilnadu-s-ai-policy-six-step-tamdef-guidance-framework-and-deepmax-scorecard
Introduction
India’s new Policy for Data Sharing from the National Transport Repository (NTR) released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in August, 2025, can be seen as a constitutional turning point and a milestone in administrative efficiency. The state has established an unprecedentedly large unified infrastructure by combining the records of 390 million vehicles, 220 million driver’s licenses, and the streams from the e-challan, e-DAR, and FASTag systems. Its supporters hail its promise of private-sector innovation, data-driven research, and smooth governance. However, there is a troubling paradox beneath this facade of advancement: the very structures intended to improve citizen mobility may simultaneously strengthen widespread surveillance. Without strict protections, the NTR runs the risk of violating the constitutional trifecta of need, proportionality, and legality as stated in Puttaswamy v. UOI, which brings to light important issues at the nexus of liberty, law, and data.
The other pertinent question to be addressed is as India unifies one of its comprehensive datasets on citizen mobility the question becomes more pressing: while motorised citizens are now in the spotlight for accountability, what about the millions of other datasets that are still dispersed, unregulated, and shared inconsistently in the areas of health, education, telecom, and welfare?
The Legal Backdrop
MoRTH grounds its new policy in Sections 25A and 62B of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Data is consolidated into a single repository since states are required by Section 136A to electronically monitor road safety. According to the policy, it complies with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
The DPDP Act itself, however, is rife with state exclusions, particularly Sections 7 and 17, which give government organisations access to personal information for “any function under any law” or for law enforcement purposes. This is where the constitutional issue lies. Prior judicial supervision, warrants, or independent checks are not necessary. With legislative approval, MoRTH is essentially creating a national vehicle database without any constitutional protections.
Data, Domination and the New Privacy Paradigm
As an efficiency and governance reform, VAHAN, SARATHI, e-challan, eDAR, and FASTag are being consolidated into a single National Transport Repository (NTR). However, centralising extensive mobility and identity-linked records on a large scale is more than just a technical advancement; it also changes how the state and private life interact. The NTR must therefore be interpreted through a more comprehensive privacy paradigm, one that acknowledges that data aggregation is a means of enhancing administrative capacity and has the potential to develop into a long-lasting tool of social control and surveillance unless both technological and constitutional restrictions are placed at the same time.
Two recent doctrinal developments sharpen this concern. First, the Supreme Court’s foundational ruling that privacy is a fundamental right remains the constitutional lodestar, any state interference must satisfy legality, necessity and proportionality (KS Puttaswamy & Anr. vs UOI). Second, as seen by the court’s most recent refusals to normalise ongoing, warrantless location monitoring, such as the ruling overturning bail requirements that required accused individuals to provide a Google maps pin, as movement tracking necessitates closer examination (Frank Vitus v. Narcotics Control Bureau & Ors.,).When taken as a whole, these authorities maintain that unrestricted, ongoing access to mobility and toll-transaction records is a constitutional issue and cannot be handled as an administrative convenience.
Structural Fault Lines in the NTR Framework
Fundamentally, the NTR policy generates structural vulnerabilities by providing nearly unrestricted access through APIs and even mass transfers on physical media to a broad range of parties, including insurance companies, law enforcement, and intelligence services. This design undermines constitutional protections in three ways: first, it makes it possible to draw conclusions about private life patterns that the Supreme Court has identified as one of the most sensitive data categories by exposing rich mobility trails like FASTag logs and vehicle-linked identities; Second, it allows bulk datasets to circulate outside the ministry’s custodial boundary, which creates the possibility of function creep, secondary use, and monetisation risks reminiscent of the bulk sharing regime that the government itself once abandoned; and third, it introduces coercive exclusion by tying private sector access to Aadhaar-based OTP consent.
Reference
Executive Summary:
A viral post currently circulating on various social media platforms claims that Reliance Jio is offering a ₹700 Holi gift to its users, accompanied by a link for individuals to claim the offer. This post has gained significant traction, with many users engaging in it in good faith, believing it to be a legitimate promotional offer. However, after careful investigation, it has been confirmed that this post is, in fact, a phishing scam designed to steal personal and financial information from unsuspecting users. This report seeks to examine the facts surrounding the viral claim, confirm its fraudulent nature, and provide recommendations to minimize the risk of falling victim to such scams.
Claim:
Reliance Jio is offering a ₹700 reward as part of a Holi promotional campaign, accessible through a shared link.
Fact Check:
Upon review, it has been verified that this claim is misleading. Reliance Jio has not provided any promo deal for Holi at this time. The Link being forwarded is considered a phishing scam to steal personal and financial user details. There are no reports of this promo offer on Jio’s official website or verified social media accounts. The URL included in the message does not end in the official Jio domain, indicating a fake website. The website requests for the personal information of individuals so that it could be used for unethical cyber crime activities. Additionally, we checked the link with the ScamAdviser website, which flagged it as suspicious and unsafe.
Conclusion:
The viral post claiming that Reliance Jio is offering a ₹700 Holi gift is a phishing scam. There is no legitimate offer from Jio, and the link provided leads to a fraudulent website designed to steal personal and financial information. Users are advised not to click on the link and to report any suspicious content. Always verify promotions through official channels to protect personal data from cybercriminal activities.
- Claim: Users can claim ₹700 by participating in Jio's Holi offer.
- Claimed On: Social Media
- Fact Check: False and Misleading
