The Kumbh Mela is set to conclude on February 26, and during this period, several celebrities visited the event. Amidst this, two viral videos are circulating on social media. The first video (here, here and here) features actor Naveen Kumar Gowda, popularly known as Yash, seen arriving with his family, while the second video (here, here and here) shows Sunny Leone near a river dressed in traditional Hindu attire. Both videos claim that these celebrities visited the Kumbh Mela. Let’s uncover the truth behind these claims.
Claim: Actor Yash and actress Sunny Leone visited the Kumbh Mela.
Fact: The viral videos of Yash and Sunny Leone are old and unrelated to the Kumbh Mela. Yash’s video is from Mumbai, where he was filming Toxic in November 2024, while Sunny Leone’s video is from her visit to Varanasi in November 2023 for the promotion of her music album Third Party. No credible reports confirm their presence at the Kumbh Mela. Hence, the claim is FALSE.
Video 1
To verify the authenticity of the viral videos, we conducted a reverse image search on Google. This led us to several videos (here and here), including the viral clips. One of these clips was uploaded by galattaindiaoffl on Instagram on 26 November 2024—one month before the Maha Kumbh Mela even began.
Further research led us to news reports (here and here) featuring the same outfit seen in the viral video, confirming that Yash was with his wife and children. According to these reports, Yash was in Mumbai shooting for Toxic, alongside Kiara Advani and Huma Qureshi.
The side-by-side comparison of the viral video and his Mumbai video, as reported by India Today, confirms that the footage is from Mumbai, not the Kumbh Mela. Additionally, as of the date of publishing this fact-check, we could not find any reports confirming that Yash visited the Kumbh Mela this year.
Video 2
The reverse image search using keyframes from the video led us to the same clip uploaded on Sunny Leone’s own X handle on 03 December 2023. While the original post did not provide any location details, it confirms that the video is not recent.
Further search using the date from the previous post along with relevant keywords led us to several YouTube videos (here, here and here) showing Sunny Leone in the same attire as seen in the viral video. The Economic Times uploaded the video on 17 November 2023, with the caption stating, “Sunny Leone attends Ganga Aarti in UP’s Varanasi alongside ex-IAS officer, actor Abhishek Singh.”
Further research led us to multiple news reports (here, here and here) confirming that Bollywood actress Sunny Leone visited Varanasi on 16 November 2023, to promote her music album Third Party. She participated in the Ganga Aarti, wearing a tilak and a garland, alongside suspended IAS officer Abhishek Singh, who is now pursuing a career in music. During her visit, she also held a press meet and later visited the Kashi, Vishwanath temple. However, as of the date of publishing this fact-check, we could not find any reports confirming that Sunny Leone visited the Kumbh Mela.
To sum up, unrelated videos of Yash and Sunny Leone are falsely shared with the claim that they visited the Kumbh Mela.
