Bollywood actor and co-owner of the Punjab Kings IPL team Preity Zinta has reacted to morphed images that recently surfaced online, depicting her hugging Rajasthan Royals teen cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi.

The buzz erupted on Monday after a video and photos began doing rounds on social media, where one particular image showed Preity hugging Vaibhav, drawing massive attention across platforms.

However, Zinta swiftly shut down the claims by taking to social media. Reposting a news report featuring the morphed image, she wrote, “This is a morphed image and fake news. Am so surprised now news channels are also using morphed images and featuring them as news items.” 

Earlier, Rajasthan Royals official X account (formerly Twitter) did post a video of Preity meeting Vaibhav, captioned, “Flex levels at school: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.”

In the video, Preity can be seen speaking with opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, before saying, “Nice meeting you,”. She then tells Shashank Singh that she wants to meet the 14 year old Vaibhav, saying, “Come, let’s go say hi to him.” and headed towards Vaibhav along with Shashank Singh. After a quick chat, Vaibhav is seen shaking her hand. However, the official video does not show them hugging each other.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi is a 14 year old cricketer from Maharashtra who is currently playing for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025. The Rajasthan Royals had made a huge decision during the IPL 2024 auction, and signed him for INR 1.10 crore when he was only 13. After small scores of 34 and 16 in his first two games, the young sensation finally made his presence felt in style against the Gujarat Titans. Suryavanshi had already played for India U19.