Kumbh Mela 2025 is set to conclude on 26 February, and many celebrities are still visiting and taking the holy dip. Amid this, a video showing Shah Rukh Khan and Nayanthara with their families, dressed in traditional temple attire and surrounded by a crowd, is going viral with the claim that SRK visited the Kumbh Mela. Let’s find out the truth behind this video.
Claim: The video shows Shah Rukh Khan visiting the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj.
Fact: The video actually shows Shah Rukh Khan’s visit to the Tirumala Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh on 05 September 2023. Shah Rukh Khan, along with his wife Gauri and daughter Suhana, offered prayers at the temple ahead of the Jawan movie release. As of date, there are no credible reports of Shah Rukh Khan’s visit to the Kumbh Mela. Hence, the claim is FALSE.
To verify the claim, we conducted a keyword search to check if Shah Rukh Khan had visited the Maha Kumbh Mela. However, we found no credible reports confirming this. Next, we performed a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video which led us to several extended and similar versions of the clip uploaded on 05 September 2023 (here, here and here). In these videos, Shah Rukh Khan, his wife, daughter, his manager Pooja Dadlani, and Nayanthara’s family can be seen exiting a temple and standing near an idol. The video was originally captioned: “Jawan: Shah Rukh Khan & Nayanthara Offer Prayer At Tirumala Ahead Of Jawan’s Release.”
Using keywords from the viral video, we conducted a keyword search, which led us to several reports (here, here and here). According to The Hindu, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan along with his wife Gauri and daughter Suhana offered prayers at the Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirumala, Andra Pradesh on 05 September 2023. He participated in the Suprabhata Seva and signed the mandatory declaration for non-Hindu visitors. To avoid media attention, the family quickly left after darshan. Actress Nayanthara and her husband Vignesh Shivan also visited the temple on the same day.
A comparison of both the videos clearly shows that they were taken at the Tirumala Lord Venkateswara temple. The dress code of all individuals in the viral video matches that of the verified footage from Tirumala temple. This confirms that the video is not from Maha Kumbh Mela but from Shah Rukh Khan’s visit to Tirumala temple ahead of the Jawan movie release in 2023.
To sum up, the 2023 video of Shah Rukh Khan offering prayers at Tirumala falsely shared visuals from the Maha Kumbh Mela.
