Fact Check: Viral video does not show Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi dancing at Anant Ambani’s wedding
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video shows the celebrities dancing at a wedding event unrelated to the Ambanis.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 14 Sep 2024 12:14 PM GMT
Claim: The video shows Bollywood celebrities Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Urmila Matondkar, Javed Jaffrey and others, dancing at Anant Ambani’s wedding.
Fact: The claim is false. The video shows the wedding celebration of Shahana Dasgupta and Chinmaya Jailwala at Akhtar and Azmi’s residence.
Hyderabad: A video circulating on social media shows a host of Bollywood celebrities, including Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Urmila Matondkar, Javed Jaffrey and others, dancing to music. The accompanying claim suggests that the event in the video was part of the wedding celebration for Ambani’s son, Anant, at Antilia, which took place in July of this year.
Taking a jibe at the religious identity of the celebrities, an X user shared the video and wrote, “This is a video from Mukesh Ambani’s son's wedding. Although singing and dancing are forbidden in Islam, see how these hypocrites are dancing in front of Antilia in the hope of getting a gift from Mukesh Ambani. This also includes Shiv Sena Legislative Council member Urmila Asif. All of them have said they feel scared in India but are not afraid to dance in front of Antilia. Send him to Afghanistan and then you will know the difference between RSS and Taliban.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video shows the celebrities dancing at a wedding event unrelated to the Ambanis.
Upon conducting a keyword search, we found the video posted by Sayema, an artist and a radio presenter, on Facebook and Instagram on December 8, 2018. In the caption, she mentioned attending the event but did not provide specific details about it. “Javed Akhtar, Javed Jaffery, Urmila Matondkar, Shabana Azmi dancing bindas. The best thing I have seen today,” Sayema wrote.
During our investigation, we found that the video also went viral in 2018, with several media outlets claiming it showed the celebrities dancing at a pre-wedding event for Isha Ambani, daughter of the Ambani family.
However, on December 11, 2018, actor and Javed Akhtar’s wife, Shabana Azmi, clarified in a post on X that the video was not from the Ambani celebration. Instead, it was filmed at their residence, Sukoon, in Khandala, during the wedding celebration of Shahana Dasgupta and Chinmaya Jailwala, with Urmila Matondkar also present.
Hence, we conclude that the video does not show the celebrities, Javed Akhtar and others, dancing at Anant Amabani’s wedding. The claim is false.
