Images of Nayanthara are going viral on social media, purportedly showing her at the Tirumala Tirupati temple with her head shaved. An archived version of this claim can be found here. (An archived version of a similar claim can be found here.)Is it true?: No, the images are AI-altered and do not show authentic images of Nayanthara at Tirumala Tirupati Temple in Andhra Pradesh. Does This Video Show the Indian National Anthem Being Sung in Afghanistan? No!How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search on the two images using Google Lens and could not find any reports or credible sources that shared them.Following this, we ran the images through Hive Moderation, an AI detection tool.According to the tool, the images are 99.9 percent likely to have been generated by AI.Here are the results of AI detection by Hive Moderation. We ran the images through another AI detector, Sightengine, which also indicated that they are very likely AI-generated.Here are the results of AI detection by Sightengine.Upon close observation, the watermark for Gemini, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot, is visible.We ran the images through SynthID, which concluded that both images were edited or generated using Google AI.We ran a keyword search and found videos from April 2026 of Nayanthara and her husband, director Vignesh Shivan, visiting the Tirumala temple.A report by ETV Andhra Pradesh, uploaded on 9 April 2026, shows Nayanthara wearing the same clothes. However, in the videos, her hair is not shaved off. A screengrab of the ETV report. Conclusion: The images are AI-altered and do not show authentic images of Nayanthara at Tirumala Tirupati Temple in Andhra Pradesh.Fact-Check: Video of Muslims Praying on London Metro Is AI-Generated(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)