Video of Deepika Padukone buying liquor goes viral; here's the truth behind it

All liquor shops were closed ever since the national lockdown was imposed across the country on March 25 to halt the spread of coronavirus. Even though the lockdown was extended till May 17, standalone liquor shops were permitted to operate as part of relaxations. Not only the news of people queuing up to stock up liquor grabbed headlines. A viral video of actress Rakul Preet Singh misidentified as Deepika Padukone went viral for all the wrong reasons.

Here's the true story behind the viral video and rightly lays down the claims and facts by media.

Claim

The video, captured by Bollywood photographer Viral Bhayani's team, showing Rakul Preet Singh comes out of the medical-provision store after shopping. The clip is doing the rounds with the caption, "Deepika Padukone buying liquor in Mumbai..... The best example of social distancing..... No servants.........No drivers."

Ever since this video was out, netizens started to assume that it's Deepika Padukone buying liquor.

Factcheck

Firstly, it wasn't Deepika Padukone, it was Rakul Preet Singh buying medicines and not liquor.

As reported by Boom Live News, a video of actress Rakul Preet Singh walking out of a medical and provision store in Bandra's Pali Hill is going viral with netizens misidentifying Singh as actress Deepika Padukone and claiming that the latter was spotted buying alcohol during the ongoing lockdown.

BOOM Live also reached out to Viral Bhayani and clarified that the video was shot on the evening of May 5 by his team at the Pali Market in Bandra West. Bhayani said, "Rakul was out to buy essentials when we shot the video. It was shot near the provision and medical store at Pali Market from which she stepped out." 

In fact, even KRK shared the same video and captioned it as Deepika Padukone and later deleted the video and changed it to Rakul Preet Singh buying liquor. Seeing his tweet Rakul Preet Singh replied to him clarifying her stance saying she was at the medical store.

Below is the Twitter conversation between Rakul Preet Singh and KRK!

"What was @Rakulpreet buying during the #lockdown? She was buying alcohol?" read a tweet by @KRKBoxOffice. The video showed Rakul in a T-shirt, dark pants, and orange sneakers. She also has a mask on her mouth and is seen carrying a few items in her hands, rushing to her car. Rakul replied, "Oh wow! I wasn't aware that medical stores were selling alcohol."

 Soon,  Rakul's fans asked her to ignore the haters.

Check out what Rakul Preet Singh fans have to say: 

"Why bother answering detractors @Rakulpreet. This is an invasion of your privacy by making a video and putting it online. Ignore it and move on," wrote one. Others also quite rightly pointed out that there was nothing wrong even if she was buying alcohol. "Then Waht : if she's buying alcohol I too ? Why typecast the things ! She's too normal human beings with her right to choose, what to eat or drink," read a tweet.

Hence proved Rakul was buying medicines!

Additionally, it is also proven that Singh was stepping out of the Modern Medical and Provision stores located in Pali Market. Below is a frame by frame comparison of the area seen in the video and photos of the medical store found on Google Maps. The photo was uploaded on Google Maps in 2017. The yellow circle in both the frames shows the green and white awning that is visible in both the stores.

On the work front, Rakul has been spending her days in the lockdown practising yoga. She took to Instagram, where she shared a throwback photograph of her doing a complicated inversion yoga pose and said that life is all about balance.

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