As the 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) unfolds, an image featuring the Punjab Kings co-owner Preity Zinta alongside team skipper Shreyas Iyer is doing the rounds on social media.
The caption with the picture in Hindi reads: श्रेयस अय्यर को जीत की बधाई देती हुई प्रीति जिंटा (English version: “Preity Zinta congratulating Shreyas Iyer on his victory.”)
The above picture can be seen here (archive)
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the picture in question, and found it to be AI-generated.
A Reverse Image Search yielded no credible sources linking the picture to any real event. Moreover, neither Preity Zinta nor Shreyas Iyer has shared or acknowledged the image on their official social media handles.
A closer look at the image reveals the tell-tale signs of AI manipulation — unnatural facial expressions, inconsistent lighting, awkward texture blending in the background, and subtle distortions, particularly around the faces.
Additionally, running the picture through Hive Moderation, an AI detection tool, we found the visuals to be artificially generated.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral image claiming to show Preity Zinta with Shreyas Iyer is fake and digitally manipulated.
