Yesterday, we had regretfully done a story where we had reported the first official look of Amitabh Bachchan's character in his upcoming movie, the very much anticipated Thugs of Hindostan. A picture was going viral on the internet, and a popular online portal had mentioned that this is Big B's shocking transformation for the Aamir Khan blockbuster. Honestly we were sceptical as first, because we had earlier seen a leaked picture of Amitabh from the sets of the movie and he was looking quite robust as the pirate lord. In the new picture, the man who was featured there was looking frail. But then Thugs of Hindostan is touted to be a movie heavy on special effects and makeup, so we assumed it is really Amitabh Bachchan in that picture.

Our bad! It's not Amitabh Bachchan. The same portal that had broke out this news later revealed that the picture, though real, had nothing to do with the Indian cinema legend. In fact, it is actually a portrait shot of an Afghan refugee taken by reputed photographer, Steve McCurry, clicked on January 2017. You can find the picture on the photographer's Insta page with the caption, “I made this portrait of Shabuz, age 68, an Afghan refugee in Pakistan. Many Afghans use only one name.”

So how did this picture 'turn' out to be made as Amitabh's look from Thugs of Hindostan? Yesterday, the media was fervently covering the news of Amitabh Bachchan falling ill while he was shooting for Thugs of Hindostan in Jodhpur. Some smart brain might have thought to use the media attention on Big B to spread this picture as his look from the movie. And some of us, including yours truly, fell for it hook, line and sinker.

Well, it's a lesson for us to remember that not everything that glitters on the internet is the gospel truth.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 14, 2018 06:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).