New Delhi: Al Jazeera has decided to laugh it off and it is darkly funny when you first chance upon the picture of "Jai and Viru" in the iconic Bollywood film Sholay with a 'Live Gaza' superimposed on it, the tragic context of war notwithstanding.
Movie buffs know it as the famous death scene of Jai, a young mercenary with a heart of gold played by superstar Amitabh Bachchan, in what is arguably one of the most watched Bollywood films ever.
On Twitter, the purported screenshot, which Al Jazeera said is "fabricated," has been shared many times over, with people calling it "yellow journalism at its worst," and accusing the broadcaster of faking its coverage of the Gaza war by showing "Jai and Viru" - actors Dharmendra and Amitabh - as people injured in Israeli airstrikes.
Text alongside reads "More horrific images of seriously injured as a result of Israeli shelling."
On Sunday, Al Jazeera's Public Relations team posted the screenshot and tweeted, "We can only laugh at these ridiculous stories about #AlJazeera... They could have a least gotten our logo right."
The broadcaster also included the Sholay grab in a list of "funniest rumours at Al Jazeera" and said, "Al Jazeera has also recently been the subject of a fake screen shot featuring a famous Bollywood film, which circulated on social media for a number of weeks, and decided to make light of this as well."
In another tweet it said, "We have enjoyed the fabricated #Bollywood picture depicting our Gaza coverage but sadly @SrBachchan does not work for @AlJazeera."
SrBachchan is the Twitter handle of Amitabh Bachchan, now 71. Sholay, a 1975 blockbuster about two petty criminals hired by a retired policeman to capture a dreaded dacoit, was one of the films that gave his career a massive leg-up as he made his way to becoming India's top actor.
Movie buffs know it as the famous death scene of Jai, a young mercenary with a heart of gold played by superstar Amitabh Bachchan, in what is arguably one of the most watched Bollywood films ever.
On Twitter, the purported screenshot, which Al Jazeera said is "fabricated," has been shared many times over, with people calling it "yellow journalism at its worst," and accusing the broadcaster of faking its coverage of the Gaza war by showing "Jai and Viru" - actors Dharmendra and Amitabh - as people injured in Israeli airstrikes.
On Sunday, Al Jazeera's Public Relations team posted the screenshot and tweeted, "We can only laugh at these ridiculous stories about #AlJazeera... They could have a least gotten our logo right."
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The broadcaster also included the Sholay grab in a list of "funniest rumours at Al Jazeera" and said, "Al Jazeera has also recently been the subject of a fake screen shot featuring a famous Bollywood film, which circulated on social media for a number of weeks, and decided to make light of this as well."
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SrBachchan is the Twitter handle of Amitabh Bachchan, now 71. Sholay, a 1975 blockbuster about two petty criminals hired by a retired policeman to capture a dreaded dacoit, was one of the films that gave his career a massive leg-up as he made his way to becoming India's top actor.
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