Virat Kohli’s statue at Times Square is not real rather it’s a work of CGI!
The image showing Virat Kohli's statue at Times Square is a CGI ad made by the Duroflex World
Claim
Statue of Virat Kohli at Times Square should be declared as the 8th wonder of the world.
Rating
Explanation
A massive golden-plated statue of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli is visible in Times Square in the widely circulated photo. He can be seen wearing his leg protection and lifting his golden bat toward the sky. The “Duroflex Mattress” promotional boards are all around this location.
This post is shared with a claim stating, “Statue of Virat Kohli at Times Square should be declared the 8th wonder of the world.”
Similar claim posts can be seen here and here.
Statue of Virat Kohli at times square should be declared as the 8th wonder of the world. pic.twitter.com/Aytc0i0haN
— Against hate (@thedeshbhakti) June 24, 2024
What’s the truth?
Using a straightforward Google reverse image search, we got our analysis underway. This directed us to a June 23, 2024, YouTube video posted by the “Duroflexworld” channel. The 18-second video was captioned “Duroflex on King’s Duty | Times Square, New York City | Virat Kohli | CGI.”
We noted the following when we clicked on the video’s description box: “Just Unveiled: A larger-than-life statue of Virat Kohli at the iconic Times Square. We are going global and creating history with this King’s Duty! Virat Kohli is delivering great health and sleep from us.” Moreover, the post had hashtags like #WorldCup, #CGI, #cgianimation, #ViratKohli, #GreatSleepGreatHealth, and #cricket.
This suggests that the widely circulated image is a screenshot from the shared advertisement for the mattress brand Duroflex World.
When we searched further we found that the same video was also posted on the Instagram page of Duroflex World with the same caption on June 23, 2024. In their caption, they mentioned that it’s a CGI video at the end.
Also, this event was covered in an article by the Indian Express and can be read here.
All of this data makes it clear that contrary to what some have claimed, the enormous Virat Kholi statue in the viral photo is a computer-generated image.
Conclusion:
We therefore conclude that the widely circulated assertion that the Virat Kohli statue in Times Square ought to be regarded as the eighth wonder of the world is not real. Actually, the Duroflex World firm used computer graphics (CGI) to produce the image for an advertisement.
