An old clip has been viewed tens of thousands of times online falsely claiming to show a scene from an upcoming Indian film where Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan allegedly insults the color saffron, which has religious significance for Hindus. The fake posts came as leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for a boycott of Khan’s upcoming film “Pathaan” over alleged anti-Hindu content. The clip in the posts, however, shows a scene from Khan’s 2011 film “Don 2”.
“Watch this scene from the movie Pathaan,” says one Post on Facebook who shared the clip on December 14.
The clip — which has been viewed more than 170,000 times under the false claim — shows a woman played by Indian actress Priyanka Chopra asking Khan’s character how he feels while in prison.
Khan’s character replies, “Yeah, it’s fine. However, I’m not happy with the color of this outfit.”
“Khan does not like the color saffron and wants viewers from the Hindu community, who respect the colour, to watch his film,” the fake post further reads in part.
He then shares a hashtag calling for a boycott of ‘Pathaan’ which is set to release in early 2023.
Screenshot of the fake Facebook post taken on December 14, 2022
Right-wing groups in India and BJP leaders have claimed that “Pathaan” has anti-Hindu content and have calling for a boycott.
The film’s star Shah Rukh Khan, a high-profile Bollywood actor who identifies as Muslim in the Hindu majority, has often been the target of misinformation here, here and here.
The same clip was also shared with a similar claim on Facebook here, here and on Twitter here.
Some social media users seemed to believe that the clip is from ‘Pathaan’.
“Seeing this scene, every Hindu should boycott the movie Pathaan completely,” said one.
Another wrote, “See how the religious color of Hindus is insulted in the movie Pathaan, the agenda of this movie is only to insult the religious sentiments of Hindus.”
However, the clip is not from ‘Pathaan’ but from another Khan film called ‘Don 2’.
Old movie
A keyword search on Google turned up a longer version of the clip went up on YouTube on February 12, 2021 by an Indian production company Excel Movies.
The caption of the longer video identifies the clip as scenes from “Don 2”. released in 2011
AFP has found no reports indicating that ‘Don 2’ was facing allegations of anti-Hindu content at the time of its release.
Here’s a screenshot comparison of the clip in the fake posts (left) and the video shared on YouTube by Excel Movies (right):
Screenshot comparison
Stills from “Don 2” — corresponding to the clip’s scene — have also been shown on this report by India Today magazine on December 6, 2011.
Additionally, actress Priyanka Chopra, who appears in the clip shared with the false claim, is not among the stars which appears in ‘Pathaan’.
‘Don 2’ is part of a franchise starring Khan. The series is about a fictional Indian underworld boss who goes by the name Don.
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