An old 2013 photo of a NCP protest against the film Aurangzeb is falsely linked to the Chhaava movie released in 2025
A viral social media post (here, here, and here) claims that the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) protested and staged a hunger strike demanding a ban on the “Chhaava” Movie, a historical drama on Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj released on 14 February 2025. The post also alleges that NCP called Aurangzeb a Sufi saint and Alamgir Badshah, stating that the film denigrates him, which they cannot tolerate. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: NCP protested and went on a hunger strike demanding a ban on the Chhaava movie.
Fact: The viral photo is unrelated to the Chhaava movie released in February 2025. It shows a 2013 protest by the NCP Minority Division, Aurangabad, against the Bollywood film Aurangzeb. Multiple posts from 2013 confirm that the photo is old. There are no reports of the NCP staging protests or a hunger strike against ‘Chhaava’. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon closely examining and translating the Marathi text in the viral photo, we found that the placard behind the protesters stated that the protest was organized by the Nationalist Congress Party Minority Division, City District Aurangabad. The placard also mentioned the protest’s subject, which was “Change the name of the film Aurangzeb and remove the controversial sentence.”
To verify claims of protests demanding a ban on Chhaava, we searched online but found no reports of NCP staging such protests or a hunger strike. However, on 24 February 2025, the Shirke family objected to the portrayal of their ancestors as betrayers. Additionally, Maharashtra Minister Uday Samant had previously opposed the depiction of the Maratha king dancing.
We then did a Google Lens search of keyframes from the viral photo led us to a 12-year-old Reddit post (archived) captioned “NCP says Aurangzeb is a Sufi Saint,” featuring the same photo. This confirms that the photo is nearly 13 years old and is unrelated to the Chhaava movie, which was released in February 2025.
We Used relevant keywords and found the photo on the blog bharatuntoldstory.wordpress.com (archived). The post claimed that the protest took place in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, against the title of the Bollywood film Aurangzeb. The banner behind the protesters referred to Aurangzeb as a Sufi Saint and demanded a title change and the removal of controversial statements from the film.
We also found an X post (archived) by Tarek Fatah dated 08 May 2013, featuring the same viral photo.
To sum up, the viral photo is from a 2013 NCP protest against the film Aurangzeb and is unrelated to the Chhaava movie released in February 2025.