Fact Check: BJP’s Arvind Dharmapuri and BRS’s Santosh Kumar shared stage at Malla Reddy's granddaughter’s reception? No, the image is edited

Hyderabad: On October 28, BRS leader Malla Reddy hosted a grand wedding reception for his granddaughter, Pavithra Reddy, and her husband Raghav Reddy. The celebration, held in Shamshabad near Hyderabad, drew a large gathering of notable political figures from across Telangana, including chief minister Revanth Reddy.

In this context, an image has been circulating on social media allegedly showing Nizamabad BJP MP Arvind Dharmapuri and BRS leader J Santosh Kumar, the nephew of BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, sharing the stage with the newlyweds accompanied by Malla Reddy and others.

A YouTube channel ‘Festival Vlogs Hyderabad’ published a video of the reception using this image as a thumbnail. The channel has over 6,55,000 subscribers and at the time of writing the article, the video has garnered over 61,000 views.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The circulating image is edited. While Arvind Dharmapuri and Santosh Kumar attended Malla Reddy's granddaughter’s reception, they did not share the stage together while wishing the bride and groom.

We meticulously examined the video uploaded by Festival Vlogs Hyderabad frame by frame but did not find footage of Arvind Dharmapuri and Santosh Kumar sharing the stage together with the newlyweds.

The video showed Kumar climbing onto the stage to meet the bride and the groom at approximately the 3:48-minute mark, while Dharmapuri reached the stage later, around the 5:14-minute mark. We did not see them participating in a photoshoot together. However, there is footage of them posing separately with the newlyweds.

Here are the original keyframes which have been used in the edited image.

The keyframe showing Santosh Kumar posing for a photograph appeared at the 4:11-minute mark. This frame featured the same floral background and identical hand and finger positions, as well as matching facial and lip expressions of Kumar and Malla Reddy.

The keyframe showing Arvind Dharmapuri posing with the newlyweds appeared at the 5:30-minute mark.

This frame also captured the sofa behind the individuals, and notably, the bride’s left hand is raised in a similar position and the hand position of all individuals, including the groom and Dharmapuri is identical to the edited image. Additionally, the tilt of their heads and smiles of all four individuals are alike.

Hence, we conclude that the viral image claiming to show Arvind Dharmapuri and Santosh Kumar posing together with the newlyweds is edited. The video of the wedding reception does not show them sharing the stage at any point.