Kedarnath faces legal troubles: Sara Ali Khan’s debut in jeopardy as producer-director-actor fight

With a delay of almost 16 months in finishing production, things do not look good for Abhishek Kapoor’s Kedarnath. The film, which marks the debut of Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh’s daughter Sara Ali Khan, was supposed to finish shoot in October 2017 but still hasn’t. It has Sushant Singh Rajput in the lead.

According to a report in News 18, producers KriArj Entertainment has filed a suit against Kapoor for delaying production and misbehaviour. “Kedarnath is currently in court. The producers believed in his vision but they didn’t know he would do something like this to them. He (Abhishek) went to Kedarnath to start the film but suddenly told the team that he was not ready and the makers lost the dates of the cast,” a source from the production house is quoted as saying in the film.

The report says Kapoor ‘cheated the producers’, is not ready to listen and announced a release date without consulting the producers. The production house was allegedly against releasing the film on the same date as SRK’s Zero. There were also rumours of Abhishek Kapoor not allowing KriArj to sign Sara Ali Khan for another film they were in talks for and pressurized the studio to drop the film.

Speaking about the film’s release date a few days after Abhishek’s announcement, Prerna Arora — who heads KriArj — had said, “We are thinking (to move the release date). We might not compete with Shah Rukh sir. We are still talking to Abhishek (Kapoor, Kedarnath director). We have to figure out which date is suitable for us. Once we get that, we will be able to reply.”

According to a report in Bollywood Hungama, Sushant Singh Rajput, who is the male lead in the film, has also had a fight with Kapoor. The actor didn’t appreciate the way his character was being handled by the director or the script. He was also unhappy at how his dates were not handled carefully, which wasted a lot of his time. He is now in Chambal to shoot for Abhishiek Chaubey’s Son Chiriya.

Sushant also has Chanda Mama Door Ke in the pipeline.

As far as Sara’s debut is concerned, rumours suggest that she will be seen in Hindi Medium 2 as Irrfan Khan’s daughter or in Rohit Shetty’s Simbaa. None of the projects have yet been confirmed.