SK26 Back On, AR Rahman in Talks as Venkat Prabhu Reworks Second Half

The Sivakarthikeyan-Venkat Prabhu sci-fi project, in limbo through most of the spring, is back in motion. Producer T G Thyagarajan of Sathya Jyothi Films, speaking to Cinema Vikatan, said the speculation that the film had been shelved is straight-up rumour, and laid out where the project actually stands: the script is in its final stage, the second half is being polished, and AR Rahman is in talks to compose the music.

That last part is the news. The film, billed informally as SK26 since its October 2025 announcement, was originally framed with Yuvan Shankar Raja attached, the long-running Venkat Prabhu collaborator who has scored almost every film the director has made. Pivoting from Yuvan to Rahman is not a small swap, and Thyagarajan was candid about why the producer is pushing for it. “We have worked with many of the industry’s top music directors. We haven’t had the chance to work with AR Rahman. It is something we want to do.” He said negotiations are underway.

The script delay is the other admission worth noting. Most producers in this position default to “everything is locked, shoot starts soon.” Thyagarajan instead said the team felt the second half could be sharpened, Sivakarthikeyan agreed, and Venkat Prabhu asked for time to do the rewrites. That is the entire reason the project’s start date kept sliding past Pongal 2026 and through the spring window most outlets had pencilled in.

The film’s larger shape has been public for months. It is a sci-fi action piece, with time-travel widely reported as the central conceit, and Ramya Nambessan was confirmed to the cast in February. Venkat Prabhu is coming off GOAT with Vijay, a film that became the director’s biggest box office to date and bought him the latitude to take a longer runway on his next.

Sivakarthikeyan, in the meantime, is not idle. He starts shooting Seyon under Sivakumar Murugesan, the Thai Kizhavi director, and that production slots in ahead of SK26 in his calendar. His most recent release was Madharaasi, and his last big-swing dramatic credit before that was Amaran — both films that have expanded the kind of role producers now offer him. Whether the Venkat Prabhu film leans on the Maan Karate-era comic Sivakarthikeyan or on the Amaran-era serious one is the question the rewrite is presumably trying to settle.

If the AR Rahman talks land, SK26 will be the first Sathya Jyothi production to carry his name, four decades into the banner’s run.