Anirudh Exits SRK’s King, Sachin-Jigar Take Over Soundtrack
- The Scoop: Anirudh Ravichander has stepped away from the full soundtrack of Shah Rukh Khan’s King, with Sachin, Jigar taking over the remaining score.
- Partial Handover: The composer’s already-cut theme track stays in the film, a rare split-credit arrangement on a tentpole of this size.
- Release Corridor: King is dated for December 24, 2026, planting it directly in the Christmas, year-end holiday window.
- Creative Team: Siddharth Anand directs and co-writes, with Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies and Marflix Pictures producing.
Anirudh Ravichander has exited the full music assignment on Shah Rukh Khan’s King under scheduling pressure, with Sachin, Jigar stepping in to carry the remaining soundtrack.
His composed theme track survives the handover, a split-credit outcome that keeps his fingerprint on one of Hindi cinema’s biggest 2026 bets.
A Split Score and the Scheduling Squeeze Behind It
Anirudh’s calendar has become the scarcest commodity in southern film music, and King required a composer physically tethered to Mumbai for months of scoring sessions.
The theme track he delivered before stepping back will reportedly anchor the film’s promotional identity, including the “They Call Him King” motif teased in the November 2025 glimpse.
Sachin, Jigar inherit a project already in motion rather than a blank page, which compresses their timeline considerably.
The duo’s track record in high-gloss commercial soundtracks makes them a functional fit for Siddharth Anand’s brand of large-canvas action, monitored across our trade entertainment wire.
Siddharth Anand’s Action Canvas and the Father-Daughter Core
Anand directs and co-writes King, reuniting with Shah Rukh Khan after Pathaan, and the film’s reported emotional spine runs through a father-daughter dynamic with Suhana Khan.
Filming began May 21, 2025, at Mumbai’s Mehboob Studios, with Suhana shooting an early scene; the final Mumbai schedule reportedly folds in action material and a song featuring her.
The reported ensemble is unusually deep: Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Jaideep Ahlawat, Jackie Shroff, Raghav Juyal, Abhay Verma and Arshad Warsi.
That bench depth signals a film built to trade scenes between heavyweights rather than lean on a single star turn, contrasting with leaner contemporary action experiments in the Hindi market.
Co-writers Sujoy Ghosh, Suresh Nair and Sagar Pandya round out a scripting room assembled for scale and texture.
Christmas Leverage and the Red Chillies, Marflix Bet
Gauri Khan produces for Red Chillies Entertainment alongside Siddharth and Mamta Anand for Marflix Pictures, a pairing that puts star-house infrastructure behind an director-led action build.
The December 24, 2026 date lands King inside the Christmas, year-end corridor, where holiday footfalls and extended family viewing stretch a film’s theatrical tail well past opening weekend.
Earlier reporting had circled October 2, 2026, before the calendar settled on the year-end slot; the shift trades a national holiday for a multi-week vacation runway.
Every week of scoring delay on a Christmas tentpole compounds directly into mixing, mastering and print delivery deadlines, which is precisely why the music transition needed to resolve now rather than later.
The split-credit arrangement keeps Anirudh’s theme in the marketing reel while Sachin, Jigar absorb the delivery risk, a clean resolution for a film whose holiday window leaves no room for slippage.
Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.
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