Morphed 'BBC News' tweet shared as Shah Rukh Khan promising to donate 'Pathaan' first-day collections to a Pakistan NGO - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 19, 2022
A screenshot of a tweet purportedly made by ‘BBC News Hindi’ is being shared on social media claiming that Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan referred to Pakistan as his second home and announced that the first day collections of his ‘Pathaan’ movie will be donated to an NGO in Pakistan, ahead of his upcoming release ‘Pathaan’. The post claims that Shah Rukh Khan’s co-actors in Pathaan, John Abraham and Deepika Padukone, have supported this decision taken by Shah Rukh Khan and said they do not have any fear of the boycott gang. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: A purported tweet of ‘BBC News Hindi’ reporting Shah Rukh Khan’s recent comments about Pakistan.
Fact: The tweet screenshot shared in the post is a morphed one. One could spot ‘Twitter for OKsatire’ text below this morphed tweet shared in the post. Shah Rukh Khan did not make any announcement about donating the Pathaan’s first-day collections to an NGO in Pakistan and BBC did not make any tweet reporting such comments from Shah Rukh Khan.  Also, Deepika Padukone too did not make any comments against those advocating boycott recently. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When searched to check whether ‘BBC News Hindi’ had reported any such news on their official Twitter handle, we could not find any. Also, on observing the tweet carefully, one could spot ‘Twitter for OKsatire’ text below this morphed tweet shared in the post. A comparison of a normal tweet on BBC’s official Twitter handle and the screenshot shared in the post can be seen below.
When we searched to check whether Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan had made any such announcement of donating the first-day collections to an NGO in Pakistan, we could not find any news report confirming this information. Shah Rukh Khan in multiple interviews revealed about his ancestral origins in Pakistan and said that his father is from Peshawar in Pakistan. Several news websites published articles reporting his family histor. They can be seen here and here. But lately, he did not make any announcement about donating the first-day collections of his Pathaan movie to a charity in Pakistan.
Following the boycott trends and online hate campaign over ‘Pathaan’, Shah Rukh recently at the opening of the Kolkata International Film Festival said, “social media is often driven by a certain narrowness of view that limits human nature to its baser self. I read somewhere that negativity increases social media consumption and thereby increases its commercial value as well. Such pursuits enclose the collective narrative, making it divisive and destructive.” Shah Rukh Khan during his speech gave a message about positivity but did not make any direct statement referring to the boycott demands. Lately, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham too did not make any statements against the boycott demand.
Earlier, when a few social media users made similar posts claiming that Shah Rukh Khan has donated 45 crores to Pakistan, FACTLY published a fact-check.
To sum it up, this purported tweet of ‘BBC News’ reporting Shah Rukh Khan’s promise to donate ‘Pathaan’ first-day collections to an NGO in Pakistan is a morphed one.