India TV Fact Check: Bageshwar Baba and Bageshwar Dham have been consistently trending on social media recently. As part of this trend, another video related to Bageshwar Dham is gaining popularity on the internet. In this video, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar is seen wearing saffron attire, and there is a claim that he has visited Bageshwar Dham. However, after fact-checking the video, it has been verified that the viral claim is false. This video actually dates back to the time when Akshay Kumar visited the Mahakal Jyotirlinga temple in Ujjain.
What is going viral?
A user by the name of Hari Kripa shared this video on Facebook on October 11, 2023, along with the caption that reads, "Guruji has expressed something very beautiful for both the poor and the rich. Jai Shri Ram Jai Shri Krishna"
In this video, the Bollywood actor is seen wearing saffron attire and entering a temple premises. In the video, chants from Bageshwar Dham's head priest Pandit Dheerendra Shastri can be heard in the background, and he also appears in the video at times. The video further shows that Akshay Kumar is accompanied by his son Aarav, niece Simar, and his sister Alka Hiranandani, along with Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan.
India TV did fact check
We initially extracted some frames from the video and used Google Lens to search for the images. During this process, when we went to the image source, we found a web story on the TV9 Hindi website. In that story, there were the same pictures of Akshay Kumar as seen in the viral video. The web story is titled, "On his birthday, Akshay's 'saffron avatar' at the Mahakal temple, Shikhar Dhawan also performed puja." The article further mentions that on his birthday, actor Akshay Kumar, along with his family, visited Ujjain to seek the blessings of Mahakal. This web story was published on September 9, 2023.
After this, we used a keyword search on Google regarding the news of Akshay Kumar visiting the Ujjain Mahakal Temple. During this search, we came across a news article from Amar Ujala. The headline of this article is, "Actor Akshay Kumar, along with family, arrives at the Mahakal temple on his birthday; Cricketer Shikhar Dhawan also seen together." This news was published on September 9, 2023. According to this article, "Actor Akshay Kumar arrived at the Mahakal temple on Saturday, along with his family. The actor visited the Mahakal temple with his family on the occasion of his birthday. Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan was also seen at the Mahakal temple during this visit."
Following that, we searched for videos related to Akshay Kumar's visit to the Mahakal Temple. During this search, we found a video on the ABP LIVE YouTube channel. This video was uploaded on September 9, 2023. The headline of the video is, "Akshay Kumar visits Mahakal on his birthday, participates in Bhasma Aarti."
What came out in the investigation?
In our fact check, it became clear that the video of Akshay Kumar which is being viral as being of Bageshwar Dham, is actually Mahakal Temple of Ujjain. Akshay Kumar visited the Mahakal Temple on his birthday. The video indeed depicts Akshay Kumar's visit to the Mahakal Temple in Ujjain, not Bageshwar Dham.
