On August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in a ‘Bhoomi Pujan’ or a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the building of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. A photograph is being circulated in light of the ‘Bhoomi Pujan’ which claims to show Times Square displaying pictures of the Hindu God Ram on billboards.
The Logical Indian received a request to verify the photo.
Claim:
Times Square displayed pictures of the Hindu God Ram on billboards.
Fact Check:
While it is true that billboards in Times Square in New York did display the Hindu God Ram but the photograph that is being circulated in photoshopped & Fake.
An image of Lord Ram and a 3D portrait of the model of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya were indeed displayed on a giant billboard in the iconic Times Square on August 5. According to news agency ANI, the largest high-definition digital display of Lord Ram is one of the most expensive digital billboards of the Hindu deity at Times Square.
#WATCH USA: A digital billboard of #RamMandir comes up in New York’s Times Square.Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed ‘Bhoomi Pujan’ of #RamMandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh earlier today. pic.twitter.com/Gq4Gi2kfvR
— ANI (@ANI) August 5, 2020
President of the American India Public Affairs Committee Jagdish Sewhani had stated earlier that among the prominent billboards that are being leased for the occasion are the giant Nasdaq screen and the 17,000-square-foot wrap-around LED display screen, considered among the largest continuous exterior displays in the world and the highest-resolution exterior LED screen in Times Square.
Below is a comparison of the actual billboard (left) and the fake billboard (right):
Generation of the fake photo
None of the news reports on the event carried the viral photograph.The viral photo was instead found to be similar to the layout provided on makesweet.com. This website provides different templates and effects resembling billboards. Below is a comparison of the viral photograph (left) and the template found on the website (right):
One of the photographs of Ram is an Alamy Stock photo. The image was uploaded by Alamy in December 2016.
‘Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman Hindu temple. Avatar of Vishnu. Lord Rama 7th incarnation. Singapore,’ reads the caption of the image.
Below is a comparison of the viral photograph (left) and the original photo found in the Alamy website (right):
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