Sara Ali Khan made her Bollywood debut in Abhishek Kapoor's Kedarnath, which finally hit cinemas after facing trouble from errant producers and backlash from right-wing groups. Kapoor revealed that Sara wanted Simmba to be her first release but he had to fight a court case against her to prevent the same.

Sara played a headstrong, rebellious girl Mukku from a Hindu family who falls in love with a Muslim porter Mansoor, played by Sushant Singh Rajput. She was also seen in Simmba opposite Ranveer Singh.

Kapoor said that the actress has no idea the struggles he and producer Ronnie Screwvala had to overcome to ensure that Kedarnath was her first film. They had to go to court to resolve the issue, following which they met with Simmba's director Rohit Shetty to sort out the dates.

Kapoor says he was paid upfront for the project and admits it was not an easy task to push Kedarnath's release before Simmba's.

"It is true. I was paid my full free upfront when I started this film. When the s*** hit the ceiling, I could’ve just walked away with my remuneration with not a care in the world. But I chose to not to abandon the project. I pulled it out of the crisis. And then when Simmba instead of Kedaranath was being called out as Sara’s debut release I fought a battle with Sara in court and then pulled up the release of Kedarnath ahead of schedule in December, which was logistically a crazy thing to do."