Have Ramayana artists Gagan Malik and Dipika Chikhlia embraced Buddhism?
Claim
Gagan Malik who acted as Ramar in Ramayana, Dipika Chikhlia who acted as Seetha have embraced Buddhism
Rating
Explanation
A collage of three different images is shared to claim that Gagan Malik who acted as Rama in Ramayana and Dipika Chikhlia who acted as Sita have embraced Buddhism.
Gagan Malik who played the role of Rama in Hindu epic Ramayana and Deepika Chikhalia who played the role of Seetha have converted to Buddhism ☸️ pic.twitter.com/ocYoCmI1Pf
— Parthiban Shanmugam (@hollywoodcurry) May 27, 2023
What is the truth?
When searching with relevant keywords we found that actor Gagan Malik undertook a two-week-long monkhood at the famed Wat That Thong temple in Bangkok. He became a Buddhist activist after he played the Gautama Buddha role in the film ‘Sri Siddhartha Gautama’. Most of the posts on his Social media pages and visuals on other social media pages show his interest in Buddhism. But no news on Dipika Chikhlia embracing Buddhism is found.
The image of the actress Dipika Chikhlia where Buddha’s idol is seen behind her is the only instance that we could find her with a Buddha photo or idol on her Instagram page. Hindustan Times article dated April 2020 mentions that she is into politics and acting in TV serials. Further, no news on her converting to Buddhism or involving in any activities related to Buddhism is found.
In addition it, we also found a recent post on Dipika Chikhlia’s Instagram page where she is seen worshipping Lord Ram.
View this post on Instagram
The image of the actor Gagan Malik is found posted on the ‘National Network of Buddhist Youth Pune Group’ in February 2020 mentioning that the photo of Buddhist Actor Gagan Malik, an International Brand Ambassador of the Buddhist Society of India was posted on his birthday.
We found that two images in the viral post are of the actor Gagan Malik and the actress Dipika Chikhlia. Another image where two artists are seen in a single image shows the actor Gagan Malik and the actress Shivya Pathania and not the actress Dipika Chikhlia. Youturn fact-checked this particular image when it went viral with a claim that the artists are Russians who performed in Ramlila in Ayodhya in November 2022.
Read More: No, the image is not of Russian actors who performed Ramlila in Ayodhya
Siddhant Samachar’s article is found carrying the viral image mentioning that the artist is actress Shivya Pathania and was welcomed as Devi Sita by PM Modi and CM of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath in Ayodhya Deepotsava.
The artists in the image are identified as Shivya Pathania and Gagan Malik from one of the Instagram posts by ‘Friends Event’ Event Management Company. The post carries a set of images from the occasion where the viral image was captured. The post mentions that the images are from ‘Deepotsav 2022’ at Ayodhya. And Shivya Pathania, Gagan Malik and Gunjan Rajput are seen tagged in this post.
Conclusion
It is found that the actor Gagan Malik is interested in Buddhism and even undertook monkhood for two weeks in Bangkok. But Dipika Chikhlia is not into Buddhism as claimed. It is to be noted that one of the images in the viral post shows the actress Shivya Pathania instead of Deepuka Chikhlia and she is also not into Buddhism.
