zero still
A still from the film Zero

Fake News, Fake Reviews mar Shah Rukh Khan-starrer ‘Zero’, ahead of release

Posted by: Arun Nag December 20, 2018

The latest victim of fake news is actor Shah Rukh Khan’s film “Zero” that received negative and fake reviews on social media before its release. Some quoted Censor Board members to make their fake reviews sound authentic.

The tirade started with a guessing game on the number of screens the film “Zero” will be released on December 21 and it turned viral until renowned trade analyst Taran Adarsh stepped in to clarify on Twitter that the screen count of Zero is not yet confirmed.

“4200 screens? 4500 screens? 5000 screens?… Overenthusiastic souls on social media keep throwing random numbers vis-à-vis screen count of #Zero… How do these numbers originate? Fact is, the screen count will be finalised only a day prior to its release… Till then, relax! [sic],” he tweeted on his real twitter account @taran_adarsh.

Leaving him behind, another fake message on social media went viral. It quoted a pre-review of the film from the Censor Board itself and said the film was a failure. Fake Twitter accounts of well-known film critics, including Taran Adarsh hit the floor tweeting negative reviews about Zero, causing immense damage to the film much before its release.  Some tweets went ahead and wrote off the film in a few lines as seen below, posing as trade analyst Taran Adarsh, twisting the spelling of the analyst to cheat the readers:

Many people were made to believe it as Taran Adarsh’s real account as the parody account too looked exactly the same on its opening page but for the minute spelling error. The accounts read @Taran_aadaarsh or @Taran_adaarsh confusing people besides damaging the reviewer’s name. No wonder, one reader has raised the question as below:

Image:

Umer Bandhu with a fake twitter account @MerryySandhu writes: “First Review from #UAE. #Zero An Average First Half and a Slow Second Half!”

Half an hour later he wrote again: “Just watched #ZERO .First time in my Entire Career none of the CBFC member gave the STANDING OVATION and APPLAUDS to #Zero.”
First part – HORRIBLE
Second HALF- BELOW Average
So I give 1 for this disaster flick” and it was tweeted at 4:02 PM on Dec 19, 2018, two days before the release with ample time to spread the engativity about the film.

Another Prakash Jaju, tweaking the name of actor Prakash Raju, writes: “#Zero Review: Very Disappointing,Nothing new. stars:-⭐⭐/5 Vfx is poor,Shahrukh khan is good,Anushka very dull,Katrina looking hot. But whole movie Disaster in my point of view. — Prakash jaju (@p_jajju) December 19, 2018.”

Another wrote a tweet impersonating SRK’s wife and trying to gain mileage on spreading negativity of the film:

 

Another one was tweeted at 12:55 PM on Dec 19, 2018: “#Zero Review: Very Disappointing and disgusting stuff stars:-⭐⭐/5 Vfx very poor, Shahrukh khan is good at overacting, Anushka very dull, Katrina looking hot . But whole movie Disaster in my point of view. @iamsrk @aanandlrai @AnushkaSharma — Atul Mohan (@AtulMohanhare) December 19, 2018.”

Parul
@parul108
Following fake accounts are impersonating known BO analysts and spreading negativity for #Zero Pls spread this and report them fast.

This apart, another wave of pro-film reviews or reviews with fake accounts imitating celebrities, including PM Modi have started appearing on social media. Here are some of them:

Conclusion: This story is a replica of too many rumours and unscientific reviews being widely shared to discredit an effort on the part of the movie makers. Our rating of this news is ?? (Misinterpretation)

About Arun Nag

Arun is with Digiteye India since the beginning as the main source for re-writing copies and re-checking the facts and images. He writes on general and tech issues. He can be reached at arunnag@digiteye.in

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