Saif Ali Khan calls Agent Vinod a ‘vanity’ project: ‘Wasn’t a tightly made film’

Saif, however, maintained that the film’s core idea was strong. “But the idea wasn’t bad, and the title wasn’t bad, and it was the right film to make. Imagine a kind of spy movie ahead of its time, perhaps. It was a cool film, but it should have held more. Maybe we made some mistakes.”

He clarified that vanity alone was not responsible for the film’s downfall. “But my point is: it was vanity. I was excited to do that. I made the film for myself, but it did open well. So its failure was not because it was a vain idea.”

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‘Too much interference from Saif and Kareena’

His comments come just days after actor Lalit Parimoo, who was part of the film, claimed that excessive interference from the lead actors, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan, contributed to the project’s failure. Speaking to Siddharth Kannan, Parimoo said, “I think the main reason was that there was too much interference from the stars,  Saif and Kareena. The way Sriram wanted to make that film, he couldn’t make it that way. He was constantly being told what he should do, so it became a mess. The writing and the direction team… They didn’t get to present what they wanted. That was the flaw of the film.”

Earlier, in a conversation with Galatta Plus, Sriram Raghavan had also reflected on Agent Vinod’s shortcomings. “One mistake I made is to take it for granted that the story is not vital, the sequences are vital. It wasn’t as good as it should have been,” he said