Shah Rukh Khan's new King poster sparks controversy after fans compare its fiery tunnel scene to Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Is it inspiration or imitation?
Shah Rukh Khan’s new King poster has ignited a firestorm online — not for the actor’s transformation, but for what many are calling a striking visual echo of Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Released on Tuesday, just ahead of SRK’s 61st birthday, the image shows the superstar in a raw, bloodied state, stepping out of a tunnel engulfed in towering flames.
He wears an unbuttoned dark shirt, revealing a chest smeared with what appears to be dried blood, one hand gripping a gun, the other raised slightly as if bracing against the heat. The backdrop is pure inferno, a cinematic storm of red and orange that frames him like a figure from a myth or a reckoning.
The look has drawn instant praise from fans, who’ve lauded the intensity and the shift from SRK’s usual romantic leads to something darker, more visceral. But alongside the admiration, a chorus of comparisons has emerged. Multiple users on X have shared side-by-side images of the two posters, highlighting near-identical compositions: the lone man emerging from darkness, the flame-lit tunnel, the weapon held low, the sense of isolation amid chaos.
One user wrote, “Am I the only one??”, and quickly found they weren’t. Another mocked the similarity with a dry, “Bro saw the Dhurandhar 2 poster and went, ‘We need that’.” A third accused the King team of copying both the script and the poster from Dhurandhar: The Revenge, even invoking Leon: The Professional as a reference point. The debate hinges on whether these parallels are coincidental or intentional.
No official statement has been issued by the makers of King or Siddharth Anand, the film’s director. There’s no confirmation either way. The comparisons remain social media opinions, but they’re loud enough to make the poster a talking point beyond just fan excitement. SRK added his own layer of intrigue with a cryptic caption: *“Aaj phir yaad aaya...
Qaatil nahi… Aashiq hoon… #KING.”* Translated loosely, it reads: “Today it came back to me… I’m not a killer… I’m a lover.” That line, simple yet loaded, suggests a character torn between violence and emotion, a duality that could define the film’s core.
King, directed by Siddharth Anand, is set for release on December 24, 2026. It’s already among Bollywood’s most anticipated films of the year.
For now, though, the real story isn’t in the plot or the cast. It’s in the pixels, and whether a single image can spark a war over originality.
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