A purported image of actor-turned-politician Vijay posing with actresses Trisha and Samantha Ruth Prabhu and her husband, Raj Nidimoru, has gone viral.

A temple can be seen in the background, suggesting that the celebrities visited together.

A social media user shared the image and wrote, “But he (Vijay) won’t stop hanging out with Trisha.”

SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral image is AI-generated.

On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same image was shared by a Facebook page called ‘Naga Chaitanya fans club’, on February 18.

The image was shared with a caption that reads, “Samantha Ruth Prabhu & Husband Raj Nidimoru, Thalapathy Vijay & Trisha Krishnan. Note: This is an AI-generated image #smilechallenge #photochallenge.”

This hinted that the image is AI-generated.

The page also shared similar AI-generated images of actors and actresses in various fictional situations. Some of which can be seen here, here, and here.

Moreover, we found Trisha sharing a post of her visiting a temple on February 19. The sari she is wearing during the visit is blue, while the colour of her dress in the viral image is beige. The viral image also showed discrepancies common in AI images.

Moreover, the people in the background are not clearly visible in the viral photo. Also, Trisha's face looks slightly different.

 We analysed the viral image with the AI-detection tool, Hive Moderation, and found it to be 99 per cent AI-generated.