The anticipation of watching Shah Rukh Khan once again onscreen has grown so much so that a fan art featuring King Khan as Tipu Sultan had surfaced online a few days ago. Since then, the image had been making rounds of social media, which has now led a certain section of users to call for a boycott of this Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming film.
The claim
It was being said that Shah Rukh Khan had been in talks of starring in the lead role of Tipu Sultan. The poster reads the movie title as Sher-e-Mysore: Tippu Sultan and a small note under it which reads, 'India's first freedom fighter'.
A member of the right-wing group shared the viral poster on Facebook and demanded a complete ban on Shah Rukh Khan's film.
"Do you recognise? Must have heard the name Tipu Sultan? It's unfortunate that in India movies are made on those who plundered the country and they are depicted as great warriors. He who maimed lakhs of Hindus, desecrated thousands of temples is today being portrayed as a hero in our country. The actor selected for the role has been carefully chosen as he has the same 'Jihadi' mentality. Now Hindus will buy tickets worth Rs 300-500 to watch the movie and the film industry will enjoy it. The country is ours, the money is ours, atrocities were unleashed on us, we were tortured but the perpetrator of all the atrocities has become the hero of this country today. Wow, you bigoted Bollywood buffoons. Boycott, boycott, boycott. Raise your voice for togetherness," read the post (translated from Hindi).
And there were several other people on Twitter who called for a boycott of Tipu Sultan film starring Shah Rukh Khan in a lead role.
The investigation
After digging into the matter, International Business Times, India, learned that no film is being made after Tipu Sultan and Shah Rukh Khan is far from associated with it. If you observe the viral poster closely, the title of the film 'Tippu' had been misspelled with a double 'P' in it. Also, there is no mention of the film's cast or anyone credited in the team.
Boom Live confirmed the same through its own investigation.
The image is a fan-made poster wishing to see Shah Rukh Khan in the role of Tipu Sultan. Shah Rukh Khan's head has been morphed with a headgear which clearly shows it is very badly morphed. It also shows the superstar wearing a chain armor.
The original image was uploaded on YouTube which was used a thumbnail to a fan-made trailer of the non-existent film. The footage was uploaded in September 2018 and had recently gone viral on social media. The video also had a disclaimer saying that it was made as an imaginary piece of work.
