Old image of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan shared in posts about son's arrest in 2021

This article is more than one year old.
Published on November 1, 2021 at 08:14
2 min read
By AFP India

An image of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan appearing red-faced and distressed has been shared in hundreds of social media posts that claim it shows him "worrying" about his child. The posts circulated online after the 55-year-old actor’s eldest son Aryan was arrested in a drugs case in October 2021. The claim, however, is false: The image has circulated in reports since 2017.

The image was shared here on Facebook on October 23, 2021.

It has gained more than 16,000 reactions and more than 1,000 shares.

Superimposed on the image, the romanised Hindi-language text translates to English as "worries about the child".

The post circulated online after Shah Rukh Khan's 23-year-old son Aryan was arrested in a drugs case on October 3, 2021 following a raid on a ship off Mumbai. He was granted bail three weeks after the arrest on October 28, 2021.

Screenshot of the misleading post taken on October 27, 2021

Several other users shared the image with similar text, as seen here, here and here on Facebook; and here on Twitter.

A reverse image search of the photo found a report by the Indian news outlet The Quint published on March 16, 2021.

The report's headline reads: “Here’s What Happened When SRK’s Car Injured a Photographer”.

According to the report, a photographer was injured by Khan's car after he attended the birthday party of Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt.

The report carries two images of Khan sitting in a car:

Screenshot of The Quint's report taken on October 27, 2021

The image in the misleading posts has been edited to make Khan seem more red-faced.

Below is a comparison of the image in the misleading posts (L) and The Quint’s photo (R):

Comparison of the image in the misleading posts (L) and The Quint’s photo (R)

The original image was also published in a report by India Today here on March 26, 2021.

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