Fact Check: Viral video showing Nivetha Pethuraj altercating with cops is MISLEADING
Nowadays, negative advertising is kind of in fashion to attract audience for a cause. Recently, Poonam Pandey resorted to this kind of advertising by making people believe that she died due to cervical cancer. All the media publications carried the death story with people wondering on what happened suddenly. But later, her PR team revealed that it was a PR stunt and was a campign for awareness on cervical cancer among women
Claim :
Viral video shows Nivetha Pethuraj arguing with the police officers when asked to open the car trunkFact :
The viral video was a promotional shot for a web series that is going to be streamed on Zee5, named Paruvu
Nowadays, negative advertising is kind of in fashion to attract audience for a cause. Recently, Poonam Pandey resorted to this kind of advertising by making people believe that she died due to cervical cancer. All the media publications carried the death story with people wondering on what happened suddenly. But later, her PR team revealed that it was a PR stunt and was a campign for awareness on cervical cancer among women. This stunt created huge awareness on cervical cancer among common people, but the stunt was not taken with good thoughts.
Meanwhile, a south Indian actress Nivetha Pethuraj also successfully pulled off a stunt to gain people’s attention. A video of Nivetha Pethuraj driving a car and being detained by police officers went viral with the captions that she is in trouble because she is hiding something in her car trunk.
In the video, we can see that she is arguing with the police in Telugu language. When the police officers asked her to open the car trunk, she can be heard saying she can’t open and it is related to her pride. In the end of the video, she panics to see someone is recording a video and shouts at them.
The video is shared with the captions like “Actress #NivethaPethuraj
Fact check:
The claim is Misleading. The viral video is a promotional act for a Telugu web series ‘Paruvu’.
When we searched for more information on the viral video, we found several comments by social media users stating that it might be a promotional or staged video. At the beginning of the video, we can see the police officer wearing crocs instead of shoes, which was questioned by several users.
Upon further research, we found a post by Zee Telugu with the caption: “Here you go! Not caught in the act, but really one for our latest original #PARUVUonZee5”, making it clear that it is indeed a promotion for a web series created by Zee 5.
Paruvu Telugu web series is going to be streamed on Zee 5 Telugu OTT. It is set to be released in June 2024.
According to Hindustan Times Telugu, the viral video was a promotional act for this series. The series is being made with a message in the backdrop of honour killings.
Hence, the viral video is a promotional act for a web series Paruvu that is going to be streamed on Zee 5. The claim that the south Indian actress Nivetha Pethuraj has really been detained by the police and is arguing with them to open the car trunk is Misleading.
Though this video in itself is harmless and raised curiosity among the audience, the use of such tactics for promotions confuses audience and makes misinformation acceptable by all, which it is being felt will start a dangerous trend on social media.
