On Sunday, January 29, the news spread that a “special screening” of the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan was held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. However, a basic check tells us that it wasn’t so “special”.
While the film Pathaan was indeed screened at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre by an association of employees working for the President, there was nothing ‘special’ about it, because every week a film is screened there. The screening of movies is part of perks available to employees of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The confusion was created by the following tweet by SM Khan, who is a former secretariat employee.
At special screening of #Pathan at Rashtrapati Bhavan cultural centre. @iamsrk @pooja_dadlani pic.twitter.com/976WYSDovw
— SM Khan (@SmkhanDg) January 28, 2023
SM Khan, who happens to be a member of PSOI (President Secretariat Officers Association) by virtue of being a former secretariat employee, tweeted that a “special screening” of Pathaan was taking place at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, leading to the confusion. It should be noted that it is the PSOI that organises such movie screenings at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, however, this was by no means a “special screening” as tweeted by Khan.
“It will be entirely inaccurate to call such routine screenings of movies as ‘special screening’ or some kind of official event by Rashtrapati Bhavan,” a senior official of the President secretariat told OpIndia, “It wasn’t even special in the sense that it was shown prior to public release. Such screenings are a routine affair.”
These screenings are not official events of the President’s office and using her name for such screenings is highly disingenuous.
The “special screening” is an official event, which is attended by the President. However, the President had not attended Pathaan’s screening. In fact, even the senior officials attached to the president’s office didn’t bother to attend the film’s screening, OpIndia has learnt. As explained earlier, this was a regular movie screening organised by PSOI once every week.
“A special screening of a movie is a technical term where the honourable President is invited and when the President attends such a screening. The President didn’t attend the screening of Pathaan. In fact, most senior officials too had not attended,” the official further clarified.
However, the marketing team of Pathaan hasn’t bothered with these minor details and propagated that a special screening was held for the film at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The same was then reported by the media without adding any details or context.
Notably, the last movie the President attended at the cultural center was ‘The Kashmir Files’, which went on a record-breaking theatrical run in 2022.
