Ed Sheeran’s first Bollywood outing is a record-breaker. “Tu Mil Jaaye,” the track from Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming King, crossed 60 million views across platforms in its first 24 hours, with YouTube alone contributing 36.3 million views and over 430,000 likes.
The song, which features Deepika Padukone, was released on Khan’s 61st birthday (Nov 2) and pairs Sheeran with Arijit Singh. It is now the most-watched song from an Indian film on YouTube in a single day, overtaking the 34.6 million views held by “Zinda Banda” from Jawan.
A Mannat meeting, not a boardroom plan
Sheeran traced the collaboration to a personal connection. When he first met Khan, the actor said he wanted him to make a song for his next movie—and to make it his first Bollywood track. That idea became concrete during Sheeran’s last India visit, when he stopped at Mannat to film a cameo for “Sapphire,” his 2025 song with Arijit Singh.
Khan introduced Sheeran to composers Sachin-Jigar that day. Sheeran wrote and recorded his verse for “Tu Mil Jaaye” the same night. He shared behind-the-scenes footage of the recording on Instagram, writing that all three of his “favourite people” ended up on one project.
Khan responded on Instagram Stories, thanking Sheeran “especially for the Hindi bits.”
What the numbers say
The first-day record puts “Tu Mil Jaaye” ahead of several recent Hindi film songs. The comparison helps calibrate just how far the song travelled:
- “Tu Mil Jaaye”: 36.3 million YouTube views in 24 hours
- “Zinda Banda” (Jawan): 34.6 million
- “Gujju Pataka” (Satyaprem Ki Katha): 34 million
- “Jai Shri Ram” (Adipurush): 32.2 million
- “Ram Siya Ram” (Adipurush): 32.1 million
- “Sikandar Naache” (Sikandar): 31.9 million
Why this matters for King
The song is the clearest signal yet of how King wants to be positioned: as a global Hindi film event built on star access and musical crossover. It arrives before the film’s Christmas release, with Khan in what the makers call a different avatar, and a cast that includes Suhana Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Arshad Warsi and Raghav Juyal, plus special appearances by Rani Mukerji, Deepika Padukone and Kareena Kapoor Khan.
Directed by Siddharth Anand and produced by Red Chillies Entertainment and Marflix Pictures, King is scheduled for theatres on December 24, 2026. The song’s platform record gives the campaign an early, citable proof of reach.
For readers who track Hindi cinema as a business, the release pattern is worth noting: the backstory was published by the artists themselves on Instagram, not through a conventional press rollout, and the record was reported within a day. That turns the song into a peer-to-peer moment between Khan and Sheeran, and gives King’s campaign social proof before the trailer cycle intensifies.
Source: Hindustan Times
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