A digital poster of Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming film 'Jawan' is circulating on social media with false claims that he renamed his film 'Pathaan' to the former after facing a backlash online for the title.
BOOM reached out to the Red Chillies Entertainment team, Khan's production company, which rubbished the claims.
The misleading claim is being made by right-wing Facebook users.
One such Facebook post claims, "Loser renames his upcoming film #Pathan as #Jawan. Renaming Paratha to #Puri will not do anything loser, boycott means boycott."
(Original text in Hindi: #हकले ने अपनी आने वाली फ़िल्म #Pathan का नाम बदलकर #जवान किया #पराठा का नाम #पूड़ी रखने से कुछ नहीं होगा हकले बहिष्कार मतलब बहिष्कार #Boycott_Bollywood )
The claim is part of an ongoing trend started by India's right-wing in earlier this month to boycott Khan's film after Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha tanked at the box office. Several right-wing social media users have also accused Shah Rukh Khan of being 'sympathetic' towards Pakistan and calling India intolerant, in the past. The right-wing has appealed for a mass boycott of his future films. Additionally, Khan's co-star in the film Deepika Padukone, has also been accused by the right-wing, for showing solidarity with Jawaharlal Nehru Students during a protest in January, 2020.
This is also not the first time the film has a triggered a slew of misinformation. BOOM had earlier fact checked lawyer Prashant Patel Umrao in 2020, after he tweeted a fan-made trailer of Pathaan and urged netizens to report it on YouTube. Read BOOM's fact here.
Viral Poster is of Shah Rukh Khan-Starrer Jawan
BOOM was able to ascertain that the poster circulating as Pathaan renamed is actually of the film Jawan, which also stars Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role. The film, written and directed by Tamil filmmaker Atlee Kumar, will be released on June 2, 2023. The film also stars Nayanthara and has been produced by Gauri Khan. Further, BOOM reached out to the team of Red Chillies Entertainment, Khan's production and audio visual company, which confirmed the same.
Shah Rukh Khan also shared the same poster of Jawan, which is now viral on social media, on Instagram on June 4. Jawan's teaser was released on June 4, 2022 and here is an audience reaction of Jawan's teaser uploaded by E Times.
Further, Red Chillies Entertainment confirmed to BOOM that Pathan has not been renamed to Jawan.
A senior associate from the production company told BOOM, "These rumours are baseless. We have not changed the name of Pathaan. It will release in January, 2023." BOOM also reached out to Pathaan's director Siddharth Anand for a comment, the article will be updated when he responds.
A look at Khan's Instagram profile also shows several updates on Pathaan and its cast.