A video showing a group of people dressed in black attacking a police vehicle has been linked to riots in Paris following the release of film Chhava. Many social media users claim that Muslims in the French capital have been rioting since last night due to the film’s portrayal of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.
The video is shared on Facebook with a caption: अब यहां के गंदी नाली के Kiड़ों से पूछो कि फ्रांस की राजधानी पेरिस में भी फिल्म ‘छावा’ के रिलीज होने की वजह से कल रात से दंगे चल रहें हैं क्या..?? (English version: Now ask the dirty drain worms here whether riots are going on since last night due to the release of the film Chhava in France’s capital Paris,.. ??)
Here’s the link to the above post. (Archive)
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be MISLEADING.
A Reverse Image Search of the video keyframes detected a Twitter post by French media outlet Actu17 in January 2021. As per the report, the footage was from Pantin, a suburb of Paris, where a group had attacked police officers.
🇫🇷 Seine-Saint-Denis : Les policiers attaqués à proximité du tournage d’un clip de rap à Pantin
►Les fonctionnaires ont sorti leur arme pour faire reculer les agresseurs, un homme a été placé en garde à vue pic.twitter.com/DU6eZX01bu— Actu17 (@Actu17) January 25, 2021
Further verification through French news reports confirmed that the incident took place on January 24, 2021, when the police were conducting a vehicle search. The attackers were filming a rap video in the area when they clashed with law enforcement. The situation escalated, prompting police to use tear gas to disperse the crowd, and four people were arrested in connection with the violence.
Moreover, when Chhava was released on February 14, 2025 in multiple countries, including France, a search of reliable news sources found no reports of violence linked to the film’s release in Paris or anywhere else in France.
Thus, it is confirmed that an unrelated video from 2021 has gone viral falsely linking it to communal unrest over Chhava film relese.
