Old Video Shared as First Look of Mumbai's Famed 'Lalbaugcha Raja Ganpati'

This video is from 2016 and this time in Lalbaugcha Raja's Ganpati celebrations, no physical darshan is allowed.

The video claims that it shows the first look of Mumbai's 'Lalbaugcha Raja' Ganpati.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video is being widely shared on social media with the claim that it shows the first look of the famed Mumbai's 'Lalbaugcha Raja' Ganesha, also known as Ganpati idol.

However, we found that the video is from 2016, and not 2021 as claimed.

CLAIM

The 30-second video is being shared with the claim that it shows the "first look of Lalbaugcha Raja" in Mumbai.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

The video was also shared by Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan on 8 September. However, he didn't make any claim and wrote that it shows the "first look" of the idol.

The video garnered at least 1.2 million views at the time of writing this article.

Several social media users have shared the video along with similar claims and the archived versions can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We used Google Chrome's InVid WeVerify extension and extracted several keyframes from the video and performed a reverse image search on some of them.

A Google reverse image search results led us to a YouTube video where it mentioned the video is from 2016.

Lalbaugcha Raja idol in 2016. 

(Source: Mumbai Moods/Screenshot)

Next, we looked into the official channel of 'Lalbaugcha Raja' on YouTube and found one video posted on 7 September 2016. It must be noted that actor Bachchan was present there at the evening prayers, as can be seen in the video.

We also looked for the video of the first day prayers at the Lalbaugcha Raja and found that the Ganesha's idol along with the backgrounds matched.

Screengrab from viral video (L), Screengrab from official YouTube channel of Lalbaugcha Raja in 2016 (R).

(Source: Facebook/ Lalbaugcha Raja/Screenshot)

The Quint, too, had carried the visuals of the Ganpati idol in 'Lalbaugcha Raja' from 1934-2017. One can spot the same idol at 2:16 minutes.

It must be noted that in 2021, the idol is being carved in Vishnu avatar, one of the trinity Lords, who is believed to be the preserver.

Lalbaugcha Raja in 2021.

Lalbaugcha Raja in 2016.

Also, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the state government has barred physical darshan of the idols, and hence the Lalbaugcha Raja Ganeshotsav Mandal has organised 24 hours video coverage on Lalbaugcha Raja's official YouTube and Facebook channels.

Clearly, a video from 2016 is being circulated as the first look of Lalbaugcha Raja idol in 2021.

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