Has China Occupied the Place in Ladakh Where '3 Idiots' Was Filmed? No!

Team WebQoof found no evidence to prove that China has captured the Indian side of the Pangong Lake.

Fact-Check | This claim of China capturing India's side of Pangong Lake is false.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A post is doing the rounds on social media platforms claiming that the spot where a sequence from Aamir Khan-starrer 3 Idiots was filmed, has been recently captured by China.

What does the viral graphic show?: It showed a screenshot from the ending of the film that was filmed in Ladakh's Pangong Lake.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

At the time of writing this report, the post had garnered over 64 thousand views on the platform. You can view archives of similar claims here, here, and here.

Is the claim true?: There is no available evidence to support that the Chinese government has captured the Indian side of the Pangong Lake.

What led us to the truth?: On searching on Google with keywords related to the film, we found an article in Economic Times that identified the location as 'Pangong Lake'.

• We searched for the location on Google Maps, which showed that a part of the Pangong Lake is in India and the other part is in China.

• Look at the image below, which shows the Line of the Actual Control (LAC) near the India-China border.

The image shows the Line of Actual Control near the India-China border.

(Source: Google Maps/Screenshot)

• Team WebQoof geolocated the place near the lake, where the final sequences of the film was recorded.

Recent visuals from the place: We searched for "Pangong Lake" on YouTube and found a video uploaded on an unverified YouTube channel named 'DREAMER VLOGS'.

• The video was published on 8 September and it was titled, "Pangong Lake: The Stunning Jewel of Ladakh."

No information in public domain: We did not find any credible news reports or information available in the public domain that talked about China capturing the Indian side of the lake.

• A report in Hindustan Times said that China has completed constructing a bridge, which connected the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake.

• It said that the bridge was located 25 km away from the LAC.

Where is the second image from?: On performing a simple Google Lens search, we found that the video could be traced back to 2020. The video had then being shared as Chinese tourists visiting the Indian side of the Pangong Lake. However, the claim was found to be false. You can view them here and here.

Conclusion: The claim of China occupying the location where a sequence of 3 Idiots was filmed is false.

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