Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut tweeted a fake interview claiming actor Aamir Khan was an extremist for insisting that his children would only follow Islam.
The interview tweeted by Ranaut falsely quotes Khan as saying that irrespective of his wife being a Hindu, his children would only follow the Islamic religion and has been called out as fake in the past by the actor's team.
Ranaut's tweet went viral and was also published by Times of India and Pinkvilla without a disclaimer that the said interview by Khan was nonexistent and fake. A source in Aamir Khan productions told BOOM that the article was fake and the actor never gave such an interview to any website.
The fake article is being shared after the actor who is currently in Istanbul met with Turkey's First Lady Emine Erdogan on August 15, 2020. The actor is visiting Turkey as location research for his upcoming movie Laal Singh Chaddha.
Khan who is married to director Kiran Rao, was called an extremist by Ranaut citing the fake interview which insists that he would teach his children only the tenets of Islam. The fake story from 2012 claims Khan answered questions regarding his first wife Reena Dutta and about Rao.
Ranaut's tweet said, "Hindu + Muslim = Muslim. This is extremism, the outcome of a marriage is not just a blend of genres and cultures but even religions. Teach the children about Allah and Shri Krishna, this is secularism right?"
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Her second tweet when translated reads, "You were the most tolerant, when did you become integrated for Hinduism? Children of Hindu mothers whose blood have Sri Krishan and Sri Rama, Sanatan Dharma, Indian civilisation, the culture is their heritage, will follow only and only Islam, why?"
The article titled, 'My wives may be Hindu but my kids will always follow only Islam: Aamir Khan' is from 2012 and appears on a site called Tanqeed. It published as an interview claims Khan spoke to a correspondent named Shaheen Raaj.
The article asks questions about Khan's views towards religion and how he follows the practices of Islam. One of the questions is about his relationship and whether he faced any "religious dilemma" marrying Dutta or Rao.
The fake story claims, that to the question, Khan replied, "No, none whatsoever. We never practised each other's religion neither did we force each other to do so. But, of course, I had made it very clear that my kids will always follow only Islamic religion."
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The interview seemingly ends with an opinion by the writer saying, "Ps: This I call Hypocrisy at its best (My input)" in response to Khan's reply that his children would follow Islam despite him marrying a Hindu.
News outlet Times Of India and entertainment site Pinkvilla, carried Ranaut's tweet and also published details from the fake interview published on the site without disclaimers that the article quoted by the actress was fake.
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Aamir Khan Addressed Fake Interview In 2016
In an interview aired on India TV's 'Aap Ki Adalat' in 2016, Aamir Khan had referred to the fake interview on being asked by the anchor Rajat Sharma why he had filed a complaint to the police for negative social media comments against him. Khan talked about the fake interview saying that someone had made up an interview in his name when he had never said anything as claimed in it.
"I had complained to the police, and this is not about one or two incidents, from some time I could see a conspiracy against me, people are being provoked against me. There was a weird interview in which I am saying that 'I am a Muslim, my kids will be Muslims, so what if my wife is a Hindu'. There were such weird interviews that I had supposedly given, some of my pictures were being shared that I am roaming with terrorists. So such type of different rumours were being spread about me," said Khan in the interview.
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It's a fake interview: Aamir Khan Productions Source
BOOM reached out to a source in Aamir Khan Productions who refuted the claims made in the article and stated that Aamir Khan did not give any such interview.
"It's a fake article, we had filed a complaint in 2012 and the police had arrested an accused in Hyderabad, for spreading the said fake interview," the source told BOOM. The source further stated that Khan has not given any such interview or made any such statements that are being attributed to the actor.
Origin of the fake interview
A search using the headline of the fake story, 'My wives may be Hindu but my kids will always follow only Islam' and 'Aamir Khan', showed results for a 2010 blog on Blogspot with the same interview.
2010 blog carrying the fake interview
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The same 2010 blog was also quoted in a DailyO article titled 'The rising intolerance of superstar Aamir Khan' from November 2015 which refers to it attributing the fake quote to Khan. The 2010 blog no longer accessible, is an exact match to the Tanqeed story published in 2012.
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(Update: The story has been updated to include Aamir Khan's 2016 interview to IndiaTV.)