Fact Check: President Ram Nath Kovind unveiled the original portrait of Subhash Chandra Bose, not actor Prosenjit Chatterjee's photo
President Ram Nath Kovind unveiled a portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday...
By Satya Priya BN Published on 26 Jan 2021 6:35 AM GMT
President Ram Nath Kovind unveiled a portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday to mark the beginning of year-long celebrations to commemorate the freedom fighter's 125th birth anniversary. The government has decided to observe January 23 as "Parakram Divas" to commemorate the great leader's birth anniversary.
But after this unveiling, many social media users, including several noted persons claimed that the President unveiled the portrait of an actor named Prosenjit Chaterjee who played Netaji in a movie, instead of his original picture.
Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee played Subhas Chandra Bose in Srijit Mukherjee's 2019 release 'Gumnaami'.
A tweet by Dr. Adil Hossain (@adilhossain), which is now deleted, claimed that "such is the state of affairs in the country. President of India unveils the official portrait of; yes believe me, of actor Prasenjit Chaterjee (Bumbuda) and not Netaji at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Bumbuda acted as Netaji in Srijit Mukherjee directed the film Gumnaami. Hail the casting".
After this several Congress and TMC leaders tweeted this, giving it a political color. Several journalists including Barkha Dutt, Shiv Aroor, Swati Chaturvedi, Rajdeep Sardesai, and prominent personalities such as Richa Chadha and Tehseen Poonawalla also made similar tweets, which were later deleted.
But the claim is still being circulated on several platforms of social media with the text "You won't believe that President of India who unveiled the portrait of Subhash Chandra Bose at Rashtrapati Bhavan is in fact an official portrait of actor Prasenjit Chatterjee (Bumbada) from his movie on Netaji and not of actual Netaji. Bumbada had acted as Netaji in Srijit Mukherjee directed the film Gumnaami.
Unbelievable error!!!"
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Fact Check:
The claim that the portrait of Subhash Chandra Bose unveiled in the Rashtrapati Bhavan resembles Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee and NOT original Netaji is FALSE.
Here is the image of the President unveiling the portrait in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The portrait of Netaji unveiled in the Rashtrapati Bhavan was rendered by Paresh Maity. Artalivegallery posted this portrait in its Instagram account mentioning the whole details.
The director of the movie Gumnani, Srijit Mukherjee shared an original photograph of Netaji stating that the painting in the Rashtrapati Bhavan by Paresh Maity is based on that photograph.
He tweeted, "The following is the picture on the basis of which the painting at Rashtrapati Bhawan was painted by Paresh Maity. For any similarity of Prosenjit's look to this photo, the credit goes to Somnath Kundu."
When compared the painting and the original photograph show exact resemblance, whereas the painting, does not show any resemblance to the actor's images from the movie Gumnami.
Chandra Kumar Bose, the grand nephew of Subhash Chandra Bose has also tweeted the same photograph mentioning that "This is the original photograph of #NetajiSubhasChandraBose, based on which renowned artist Shri #PareshMaity has drawn the portrait which was unveiled at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 23 Jan 2021, by Hon'ble President of India-Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji. @rashtrapatibhvn @narendramodi"
Hence, the claim that the portrait of Subhash Chandra Bose unveiled in Rashtrapati Bhavan resembles actor Prosenjit Chatterjee and NOT original Netaji is FALSE.
