This video does not show Bollywood star's son urinating at an airport

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on January 13, 2022 at 14:58
  • Updated on January 14, 2022 at 06:24
  • 3 min read
  • By AFP India
Footage of a man urinating at an airport terminal has been viewed thousands of times in social media posts that claim he is Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan. The video surfaced after Aryan was arrested in a drugs bust in October. The claim is false; the footage circulated in reports from 2013 that name the man as "Twilight" star Bronson Pelletier.

"Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan at US airport," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on January 3.

The footage -- which has been viewed more than 8,000 times -- shows a young man staggering in an airport terminal.

He then begins urinating on to the floor as shocked passengers look on.

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Screenshot of the false post captured on Facebook

The son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was granted bail in October three weeks after being arrested during a cruise ship drugs bust in a case that has gripped India.

Aryan Khan, 23, the eldest son of the actor dubbed the "King of Bollywood", was detained in early October alongside 19 others after the Narcotics Control Bureau raided a ship set to sail from Mumbai to Goa.

Shah Rukh Khan has kept a low profile and made his first public appearance since his son's arrest in December, the Indian Express reported.

This video was shared in similar posts here, here, here on Facebook and here and here on Twitter.

Some social media users appeared to believe the footage genuinely showed Khan.

"Very good, he has been arrested. These people defame India abroad," one commented. 

"Shame on the anti-national actors who keep preaching but their children are like this... Being rich is not everything," another wrote.

However, the claim is false.

The footage has circulated since 2013 in reports that name the man in the video as Canadian actor Bronson Pelletier, who starred as a werewolf in the "Twilight" movies.

A reverse image search of keyframes from the video followed by keyword searches on Google found the same footage published by  American tabloid TMZ on January 3, 2013.

"The hammer of justice has come crashing down on 'Twilight' actor Bronson Pelletier after he whipped out his dong in the middle of LAX back in December ... and took a lengthy whiz on the terminal carpet," TMZ reported.

"Pelletier had previously denied peeing at the airport ... but TMZ posted some damning video last month, showing the actor plainly urinating out in the open. And here it is again."

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the misleading posts (left) and the video in TMZ's report (right).

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A screenshot comparison between the video in the misleading posts (left) and the video in the TMZ report (right)

Frames from the video were also published in this report about the same incident by British tabloid Daily Mail on January 3, 2013.

Keyword searches on Google did not find credible reports about Aryan Khan urinating in an airport.

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