Claim: Pakistan army’s emblem is engraved into a door of Pataudi House in Haryana, India.
Fact: The emblem on the door is not of the Pakistan army. Rather, it is the emblem of the Pataudi royal family.
On 14 September 2024 a Facebook user posted (archive) a photo of Indian actress Kareena Kapoor Khan posing against what seems to be a door at Pataudi House in Haryana, India, along with a photo of the Pakistan army’s emblem as shown on Wikipedia (archive). The user claimed the metal strip on the door had the Pakistan army’s emblem engraved on it.
On 17 September, a user on X (formerly Twitter) posted (archive) the claim with the same picture which went significantly viral.
Fact or Fiction?
The photo of Kapoor is taken from a photoshoot (archive) for the promotion of the actress’ latest movie The Buckingham Murders and was shared on her official Instagram handle on 3 September 2024.
Both users claim that the actress is posing in Pataudi House, the ancestral residence of Saif Ali Khan in the town of Pataudi, Gurugram district, Haryana, India.
However, evidence suggests the photo is part of a larger photoshoot conducted at the actress’ Mumbai residence, right before the trailer launch event of her movie, The Buckingham Murders. Khan shares the residence with her husband, Saif Ali Khan Pataudi.
The photos from the shoot were posted to Khan’s official Instagram account on 3 September 2024 with the hashtag “#TheBuckinghamMurders” in anticipation of her upcoming movie. In the photos, Khan wears a black pantsuit, which is what she wore to the trailer launch event that took place on 3 September as well. Khan’s outfit received mass coverage at the launch, which can be seen here, here, and here. Commenting on the outfit as seen in the photoshoot, the Times of India stated, “The actress once again made heads turn as she attended the trailer launch event of her upcoming film ‘The Bucking Murders’ in Mumbai.” Furthermore, Indiatimes published a photo and video of Khan in the same outfit, stating, “The 40-year-old strutted out of her Bandra home today in this all black outfit to attend the trailer launch of her upcoming film.”
Pictures of the inside of Khan’s residence also match certain features of the picture allegedly taken in the ancestral Pataudi House in Gurugram.
GQ India published a piece in September 2023 about the Khans’ multiple residences. Talking about their new home in Bandra, Mumbai, it is stated that, “the popular Bollywood couple’s new luxurious and expensive four-storey house in Satguru Sharan [located within Bandra] has been designed by Darshini Shah.” The piece in GQ India also displayed photos of the inside of the house, one of which is shown below:
The original photo is part of a series that can be seen on Kareena Kapoor Khan’s official Instagram page here. There are a number of similarities between this series of photos and the pictures from the photoshoot.
The pattern on the doors, with the golden knobs in the middle, match in both of the photos below. Both pictures also show the door to the right having a metal strip. Moreover, the chequered pattern on the floor is the same.
Comparing another picture from the photoshoot with the picture of the couple above, reveals that the U-shaped artefact at the top of the doorframe is the same.
Comparing the above photo of Kareena Kapoor Khan with another from the series with her husband reveals that the lamp on the wall to the right is also the same.
Hence, the claim that the photo of Khan was taken in the ancestral Pataudi House is false.
Most importantly, Soch Fact Check scrutinised the image in the claim closely and found that the two emblems are different. Below is a comparison of the two:
While there is a resemblance between the two, they are not the same.
The major difference lies in how the crescent and the star are positioned.
In the emblem on the door in Khan’s Mumbai residence, both the crescent and star face upwards. On the other hand, the emblem of the Pakistan army has the crescent and star facing to the left. Moreover, in the emblem on the door, the guards of the swords are clearly bent at the ends, whereas they remain fairly straight in the emblem of the Pakistan army.
A Google search for the words “Pataudi emblem” and “Pataudi symbol” revealed that the emblem on the door in Khan’s home has a striking resemblance to a previous flag for the state of Pataudi. This can be seen on Flags of The World (archive). The flag and its later version, as shown on World Statesmen (archive), can be seen below:
Source: World Statesmen.
Another image of the flag, found on ethnia.org (archive), is shown below:
The emblem at the centre of the old flag of the state of Pataudi, containing the swords with the bent guards and upwards-facing crescent and moon, matches the emblem on the door in Khan’s home.
Soch Fact Check also noted the responses of several X users in the comments section pointing out that the emblem on the door is that of the Pataudi royal family and not the Pakistan army. These comments can be seen here, here, and here.
Users also responded to the post on Facebook which made the claim, citing that the emblem may be of the Pataudi royal family. These can be seen below:
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the emblem seen in a recent image of Kareena Kapoor Khan is not of the Pakistani army. The claim is false, and the emblem appears to signify the Pataudi royal family.
Virality
The post on Facebook has 473 reactions, 80 comments, and 416 shares.
The post on X has 486.2 K views and 3.7 K reposts. It can also be found here (archive) and here (archive).
Conclusion: The Pakistan army’s emblem is not engraved on a door in Pataudi House, Haryana, India. It is most likely the emblem of the Pataudi royal family.
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Background image in cover photo: Hindustan Times
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