The much talked-about mujra in Saif Ali Khan’s Agent Vinod, featuring Kareena Kapoor, was not included just to keep audiences happy, asserts director Sriram Raghavan. “Songs should take the film forward, not exist just for entertainment. There is a sequence in Karachi, Pakistan, so I thought if we have to do a song sequence then let it be a traditional mujra,” he adds. Unlike female actors in most international spy thrillers, Kareena has a substantial role in Agent Vinod. The director says, “It’s not an easy character to pull off. I didn’t make her a better actor. She made the character better than what was originally conceived.” Based on the life of a RAW agent, played by Saif, Raghavan admits this is his most challenging project yet. “So far, I have done small-budget films, mostly shot within 50 days. For this, we shot for around a year-and-a-half at several Indian and foreign locations, dealing with different weather conditions everywhere. And since we had a multi-national cast, communication between all the actors was a bit difficult,” recalls Sriram, who is credited for directing films like Ek Hasina Thi (2004) with Saif and Johnny Gaddaar (2007) with Neil Nitin Mukesh to his credit. Agent Vinod is set to hit theatres on March 23.
