Karnataka youth Prathap NM, known as Drone Boy or Drone Prathap, whose claim of building 600 drones using e-waste was busted by a comprehensive fact-check by OpIndia, is all set to enter the house of Bigg Boss Kannada, if reports are believed. According reports by Kannada media such as Asianet News and News 18 Kannada, the fake drone scientist is going to participate in the reality TV show aired on Colors Kannada channel.
According to the reports, the 8th edition of Bigg Boss Kannada will start early next year, and the selection process of participants has already started. Although the names of the participants are kept confidential before official disclosure by the channels, rumours on media and social media suggest that actor Anirudh Jakaar, newsreader Heeregowdar, Divya, Tik Tok queen Sonu Gowda, Drone Prathap and Bindu Gowda are set to participate in the show.
Prathap had risen to fame after Kannada media had hailed his ‘inventions’ without bothering to verify his claims. He had claimed to have built drones using electronic waste from broken TVs and Mixer Grinders, had claimed to have won numerous awards in ‘Drone competitions’ Japan and Europe. He had also claimed to have received invitations from over a hundred countries to deliver lectures.
But there was not a single photo or video available of any drone build by him, and the awards that he had claimed to have won do not exist. In the OpIndia fact-check, it was found that Prathap had visited various tech-expos in Japan, Germany etc, had got himself photographed with drones on display at those events, and had circulated them as his own creations. Most of the images had branding of the companies that made the drones, but it didn’t stop him from making false claims. Reportedly, he had also received funding of a large amount from various donors to keep up his ‘research’.
However, after OpIndia had published the fact-check, ‘drone Prathap’ had crash-landed, and all the people who had supported him started distancing themselves from him. Kannada media had also finally started to question him. The final nail in the coffin of his fame was put by Prathap himself, when he had shared a photo from a German expo to give proof of drones built by him in a live TV show. Immediately after that, German drone maker BillzEye Multicoptersysteme had issued a statement saying that it was their drone, and Prathap had nothing to do with its development.
Bigg Boss Kannada 8 is scheduled to start in January after Sankranti. Sudeep is set to return as hosts of the show this time also.