Fact Check: Did Chiranjeevi meet and wish Allu Arjun on Pushpa 2 success? No, viral image is old

Newsmeter Network

Hyderabad: Icon star Allu Arjun’s much-anticipated film Pushpa 2 had a grand release across the globe on December 5. While the movie received mixed reviews from critics and audiences, it continues to perform exceptionally well at the box office. The Pushpa frenzy has extended beyond the Telugu States, with its hype fuelled by a massive trailer release event in Patna that drew nationwide attention.

Amid this buzz, a photo claiming to show megastar Chiranjeevi meeting with Allu Arjun and congratulating him on Pushpa 2’s success has gone viral on social media. This has sparked heated discussions, especially given the ongoing tension between fans of the Mega family and Allu Arjun. The photo has Chiranjeevi and his wife Surekha congratulating Allu Arjun by feeding him sweets.

A similar post can be seen here.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The viral photo is old and is not related to Pushpa 2.

With a Google reverse image search, we found the same photo on 123telugu.com published on August 26, 2023. It was titled, ‘Photo Moment: Chiranjeevi & Surekha congratulate Allu Arjun on the National Award win’.

According to the report, the photo shows Chiranjeevi congratulating Allu Arjun for receiving the National Award for Best Actor for his role in Pushpa: The Rise—the first part of Pushpa 2. The report also has another photo of Chiranjeevi presenting a bouquet to Allu Arjun at the same place.

We also found that Geetha Arts, the production company behind Pushpa, posted the same photo on its official social media on August 26, 2023: “MEGA wishes from the MEGASTAR @KChiruTweets garu extends his heartfelt congratulations to Icon star @alluarjun on his remarkable achievement on clinching the BEST ACTOR National Award for exemplary performance in #PushpaTheRise. (sic)”

Furthermore, ABP Live Telugu published a photo story about Allu Arjun’s award, captioning the images, “Chiranjeevi also congratulated Allu Arjun after he received the National Award.” (Translated from Telugu) The viral image was a part of the photo story last updated on August 29, 2023.

Although Chiranjeevi acknowledged Allu Arjun's success for Pushpa 1, there has been silence even after the movie reportedly crossed Rs 500 crores in earnings.

Whenever a Tollywood film creates a significant buzz in the North, often there’s an expectation for top Tollywood stars to acknowledge its success, irrespective of whether they have worked on the film. However, leading figures such as Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan and other heroes from the Mega family have remained notably silent about the success of Pushpa 2 so far.

Therefore, we conclude that the viral photo is from August 2023 and is not related to the success of Pushpa 2.