Amid the recent boycott Bollywood trend, which has seen people criticising the mainstream film industry and vowing to boycott their films, a message is being circulated on social media with a claim that Shah Rukh Khan has changed the name of his film Pathaan to Jawan, fearing negative responses and outrage.
These 'boycott calls' have led to the poor domestic box office performance of films like Laal Singh Chaddha and Dobaaraa. Now, users have started calling for the boycott of Pathaan.
However, we found the claim was false as no official confirmation has yet been reported on changing the film's name. Pathaan and Jawan are two different films where Khan will be seen in the lead role. Both films will be released in 2023 on different dates.
CLAIM
The claim suggests that Shah Rukh Khan has changed his upcoming film's title to Jawan from Pathaan.
The viral post has been uploaded with a caption in Hindi," "पठाण " का नाम बदलकर " जवान " कर दिया हू.... हाथ जोडता हु, मेरी फिल्म को बॉयकॉट मत करना , मैं बरबाद हो जाऊंगा."
(Translation: "Pathaan" has been renamed to "Jawan" I'm pleading with all of you to not boycott my film, I will be ruined.")
An archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND
At first, we checked Khan's official Instagram page and came across the posters of Pathaan and Jawan, indicating that these are two different films which will be released in 2023.
Pathaan will be released on 25 January 2023 featuring Shah Rukh Khan along with Deepika Padukone and John Abraham in the leading roles. The film's latest poster was uploaded on Khan's Instagram handle on 25 August, in which Abraham can be seen.
Further, we performed a Google search using keywords such as "Shah Rukh Khan changed his film Pathaan name" and came across a report published by ETimes on 25 August, which mentioned that the film's title would not be changed under the pressure of negative responses or trolling.
A senior industry source told ETimes that the makers are under no such pressure and dismissed the claims of the film's renaming.
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