A photo of a police unit guarding a building with weapons in their hands is being shared on social media. The building has a poster of the upcoming Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone starrer Pathaan. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: A picture of a police unit guarding a theatre screening Pathaan.
Fact: In 2018, when the release of Sanjay Leela Bansali’s film Padmavat received opposition from Hindu right-wing groups, it was released amid tight security in some places. The viral photo uses one of the photos captured in front of a theatre screening Padmavat movie and replaced it with the poster of Pathaan. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We performed a reverse image search to learn more details about the viral photo. This led us to a few news reports (here and here) from 2018, which contained similar images. This photo was taken in front of Delite Cinema, Delhi, which screened Padmavat then. Photos of the same cinema theatre from different angles can be seen here and here. Reportedly, the film Padmavat was released in January 2018 with tight security amid protests from various Hindu Right-Wing groups. This photo is edited to include the poster of the film ‘Pathaan’.
Amid calls for a boycott of the movie Pathaan, it is set to release on 25 January 2023. The film’s star, Shahrukh Khan, spoke to the Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma after Bajrang Dal activists burnt posters of Patan outside theatres in Assam. The CM tweeted about the conversation and said ‘assured him that it’s duty of state govt to maintain law & order.‘
To sum it up, this post shares a digitally edited image and calls it the visuals of police guarding a theatre screening Pathaan.
