Hyderabad: Mohanlal, the legendary Malayalam actor known for his exceptional talent and diverse roles in more than 400 films, has long been admired as one of Indian cinema’s finest actors. With a career spanning decades, he has become an icon not just in Kerala but across India.
An old image of Mohanlal from what looks like a college magazine is now making rounds on social media. It shows a young Lal’s profile photo with others with the text ‘ABVP MG College Union’ under the images. Those sharing the image claim it is proof of his past ties with ABVP or Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad—a right-wing student organisation with ties to the BJP and RSS.
A Facebook user shared the image with the caption, “Once upon a time.”
Similar post can be seen here.
South Check found that the claim is false. The original photo is related to Mohanlal winning an award at an art festival during his college days.
A reverse image search led us to a similar image shared on a Mohanlal fan page on Facebook in April 2020 with the caption ‘Art Festival Winner’s Best Actor – Mohanlal’. The image featured a block of nine persons with Lal’s photo in the middle. As per the text at the bottom, the nine persons were winners in their respective categories at a college art festival. One of the winners was also the popular classical musician Kavalam Sreekumar.
Using this information, we found a report published by Manorama News on May 23, 2020, featuring the same image. The report stated that actor Anil Nedumangad shared the image of Mohanlal printed in the Thiruvananthapuram MG college magazine on his Facebook page. However, this image did not have the text ‘ABVP MG College Union’ under it.
According to the report, Mohanlal secured second place in a drama competition at a college arts festival. This was followed by the release of Mohanlal’s debut film, Manjil Virinja Pookkal, the very next year, which marked the beginning of his successful film career.
The report also said that, after the success of his debut film, Mohanlal returned to college for his third-year Arts Day celebrations, where he was welcomed back as a star. We also found a similar report published in the Malayalam portal Samayam.
None of the reports or the images mentioned that Mohanlal was a part of the ABVP students’ union. This confirmed that the text was added later to make it look like Mohanlal was part of the right-wing student body.
Therefore, the claim is false.
