Hollywood stars Tom Holland and Zendaya, co-stars of Spider-Man: No Way Home, arrived in India on 31 March amid rumours of their prospective engagement. They were photographed in Mumbai after their arrival, and they attended the opening of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center (NMANCC) on Friday night.
Amid media frenzy over their arrival in India, the official Twitter account of Kerala Tourism today posted a photograph of the duo apparently in Kerala. In the picture, Tom and Zendaya are seen holding hands on a picturesque tea plantation. Kerala Tourism added the caption “Guess who we spotted far away from home?” with the photograph and also added hashtags #FarAwayHome, #Munnar and #KeralaTourism. Munnar is a hill station in Kerala that has several tea gardens.
However, netizens were quick to spot that Kerala Tourism posted a morphed photograph, and the Hollywood stars didn’t visit a tea garden in Munnar, as suggested by the tweet. The photograph that the official Twitter account of Kerala Tourism is actually from Boston in USA from last year.
Tom Holland and Zendaya were spotted together in casual attires in Boston in April last year, and their photographs, clicked by celebrity portal Backgrid, were published by several media houses. One of those photos, showing Tom holding Zendaya’s hand in his trousers pocket, was used in the Kerala Tourism photo, which was photoshopped on the background of the tea garden photograph.
It is not sure whether the Kerala government department fell for a prank created by someone else or it was a deliberate April Fool prank. Some Twitter users opined that it is an April Fool joke.
However, even if it was a deliberate prank, it is unusual for a government agency to post April Fool pranks, and that too without giving any hint. It is not known whether Kerala Tourism got pranked or played a prank on April Fool’s day. It is also possible that it is not a prank and someone just took the photograph and superimposed it on the tea garden photo for the promotion of Kerala tourism. If that is the case, that will be a highly unethical thing to do. Creative agencies are sometimes caught lifting images available only.
Tom Holland and Zendaya were photographed exiting Kalina Airport, the terminal for private aircraft at Mumbai airport on Friday. The couple has been dating since they co-starred in Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, and they made their romance official in September 2021.
The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre was inaugurated in Mumbai last night, which was a star-studded affair with several celebrities. Apart from Tom and Zendaya, Penelope Cruz, Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, French fashion designer Christian Louboutin and artist Jeff Koons were present. From Indian entertainment industry, several celebrities including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Rajinikanth, Aamir Khan, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Vidya Balan, Shraddha Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Kiara Advani, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor and others were present.
The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC), is located in the Jio World Centre in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).
