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

3 min readMumbaiJun 16, 2026 10:39 AM IST

Agent Vinod bombed at the box office.

Released more than a decade ago amid considerable hype, Sriram Raghavan’s spy actioner Agent Vinod ultimately failed to live up to expectations. Despite featuring some of the film industry’s most accomplished action choreography and a generous dose of humour woven into its narrative, the film struggled due to a plot that seemed to head in too many directions at once. The box office disappointment was particularly difficult for Saif Ali Khan, who had been deeply invested in the project, both as its lead star and producer.

‘I made the film for myself’

Now, in a conversation with Variety India, Saif reflected on the film’s failure, admitting that Agent Vinod may have been driven partly by vanity. “I think of Agent Vinod as a film that might have been vain. But also, that film opened really well, you know. It’s just that it did not sustain because it probably wasn’t a tightly made film, or it went off track in many ways. Or, as Sriram himself said, he put too many toppings on the pizza.”

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