Shah Rukh Khan on the poster of Jawan.
Credit: Insta/@iamsrk
Shah Rukh Khan fans' anticipation for the release of his latest movie Jawan was soured by a flurry of bad reviews. In their reviews, three X (formerly Twitter) accounts referred to the movie as "crap," "unbearable," and "South Indian masala". One star is the lowest rating they gave to Jawan.
Considering that no mainstream film publication in India or abroad has screened the film, some people questioned how the film was even reviewed. These 'reviewers' had a response for that as well. They claimed that they had watched the movie in Singapore, Mauritius, and London censor board offices.
Even some news websites picked up these bad reviews, referring to them as the "first reviews of Jawan".
However, these movie reviews were part of a smear campaign, reported India Today.
They were also completely baseless because, as of September 6, the day before Jawan was scheduled for release, there had been no press screenings of the movie anywhere in India or abroad.
How do we know these reviews are fake and malicious?
Firstly, there are no entities called the "Censor Board of Singapore", the "Censor Board of Mauritius", or the "Censor Board of London".
The film certification bodies in Singapore, Mauritius, and the UK are InfoComm Media Development Authority of Singapore, the Film Certification Board and the British Board of Film Classification, respectively.
The spokespersons for the British Board of Film Classification and InfoComm Media Development Authority of Singapore categorically denied the presence of any reviewer during the certification screening of the film.
No film critic called Harmindar attended the Jawan screening, according to the UK representative, who also emphasised the organisation's strict security protocols that only let authorised BBFC staff to view content for classification.
Jawan was given a '15' in the UK, considering its intense violence, injury details, threat, and suicide visuals. Similarly, Mardhiah Suardi of InfoComm, stated that no media personnel watched Jawan in the certification screening.
Who is targeting SRK’s Jawan?
It is observed that Kamal R Khan, an actor, producer and YouTuber, who is popularly known as KRK, re-posted all three reviews on X and amplified them.
Digging deeper, it was discovered that two of these accounts were previously named as "@kamaalrkhan" a few years back.
Currently, KRK's official X (formerly Twitter) account is @kamaalrkhan. It's also interesting to notice that every reply to a post from @NewsOfBolly in 2013 included the Twitter account @KRKBoxOffice, which suggests that this may have been the account's old handle.
So, with some certainty, it can be said that KRK is behind both these accounts, while the third account appears to be a stolen identity.
To sum it up, it is safe to say that the reviews of Jawan posted by the accounts in question are fake and undoubtedly part of a smear campaign.