Fact Check: Video of young men attacking French police van is not related to film Chhaava’s release
A 2021 video of an attack on French police car is falsely linked to ‘Chhaava’ release, claiming the film’s release sparked Muslim riots in France
Claim :
A viral post claims that Muslims in France rioted over the release of 'Chhaava’Fact :
The video of assault on police car is from 2021 and unrelated to Chhaava release in France
The Bollywood blockbuster and historical drama Chhaava, featuring Vicky Kaushal, Rashmika Mandanna, and Akshaye Khanna has so far earned Rs. 590 crore as it entered
its seventh weekend.
The film has been performing exceptionally well since its release on February 14, 2025. However, Vicky Kaushal’s Maratha warrior movie is expected to face fresh competition amid the release of Salman Khan's action-drama Sikandar on March 30, 2025. The film’s pre-sales business has crossed Rs 12 crore mark.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that Chhaava will be released on Netflix on April 11, 2025. However, the online streaming giant has not yet confirmed the streaming date of the movie, yet. Notably, movies are usually released on OTT under 60 days of their theatrical release.
Amidst Chhaava’s impressive run at the box office, a video showing a few young men attacking a French police van is being circulated on social media claiming ‘Muslim’s have resorted to riots as Chhaava gets released in French (France).”
The viral claim link is here and the archive link here.
Here’s the screenshot of the viral post.
Fact Check:
During the investigation, the Telugupost fact check team found that the claim made in the viral post ‘Chhaava’ release triggered riots by the French Muslim community to be false.
To verify the claim, we first checked IMDb, which is an online database of information related to films and found that ‘Chhaava’ had a ‘limited’ release in theatres across France on February 14, 2025.
We then ran a Google Search query using relevant keywords in both English and French, however, we did not find any results pointing to Hindi film related riots/clashes involving Muslims in Paris, France.
We then extracted the keyframes of the viral post and ran them through the Google Reverse Image Search tool. We came across a video showing the assault on the French police van on Daily Motion, which is a French online video sharing platform.
The video was uploaded on ‘Le Parisien’ channel with the title on “Seine-Saint-Denis: des policiers caillassés en marge du tournage d'un clip de rap” on January 21, 2021.
According to a news report on ACTU.fr website, patrol police arrived in the Courtillères district while some youths were filming a rap video. This enraged the youths, who began pelting the police van with stones, prompting the officers to respond with tear gas. Subsequently, four individuals were arrested in connection with the attack.
The news report also carried a tweet by the “Commissaires de Police SICP”
“In the Ville de Pantin commune of Courtillères district, the police officers were surrounded and attacked violently by the thugs.”
