Fact Check: Did KCR Pay Rocking Rakesh Rs 20 Crores To Make His Biopic?

A Telugu film called Keshava Chandra Ramavath was released in theatres on November 22. The film based in Telangana sought to get people's attention through its title ‘KCR', a clear reference to the former chief minister and BRS president K Chandrashekar Rao.

During promotional events, ‘Jabardasth' actor Rocking Rakesh and the producer of the film called the movie a ‘fan story dedicated to KCR' (Archive).

Upon the film's release, a purported newspaper clipping of Rocking Rakesh's interview went viral. Excerpts from the interview claim that Rocking Rakesh admitted to receiving Rs 20 crores from KCR at a farmhouse to produce a film glorifying the political leader's life.

An X user shared the newspaper clipping and accused KCR of not attending the State Assembly sessions and ignoring the poor even while spending Rs 20 crores to make a film on him. ( Archive)

According to the interview, Rakesh admitted that many left the theatres before the interval as it lacked a proper story and only focussed on glorifying KCR. The interview also quoted Rakesh saying he has no financial stakes in the film and would avoid political topics in the future.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The newspaper clipping is fake.

The newspaper clipping had a logo at the bottom named ‘Telangana News Today'. There was also a link to its epaper. However, no such newspaper or website exists. The link did not lead to any website nor is there any newspaper in Telangana which goes by that name.

At the bottom right, we noticed the graphic image of an owl, which is the logo of the website Readwhere, a platform where users can publish and read content online. The fake newspaper clipping was created by designing or editing a document to resemble an authentic news article and then overlaying the Readwhere logo to give it the appearance of being published on the platform.

We also looked through Rakesh's social media profiles and found no posts about the alleged interview. His latest posts were only about promoting his movie.

When NewsMeter reached out to Rocking Rakesh, he denied ever giving such an interview. He said, “If KCR gave me Rs 20 crore, why would I struggle to find theatres for my film? If it were true, KTR or Dil Raju would have promoted my movie like they did for Balagam.”

Hence, we conclude that the viral newspaper clipping about KCR's financing a movie about his life is fake.

(This story was originally published by NewsMeter, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)