I am partial towards thriller genre: Sriram Raghavan

Mumbai: Besides his earlier two films `Ek Hasina Thi` and `Johnny Gaddaar`, his upcoming `Agent Vinod`, too, is a thriller and director Sriram Raghavan says he is "partial" towards this genre of movies.

He made his debut as a director in Bollywood with `Ek Hasina Thi` (2004), a dark thriller, starring Saif Ali Khan and Urmila Matondkar. The film received rave reviews upon release and Saif`s negative character was appreciated by all. He then went on to direct another thriller, `Johnny Gaddaar` (2007), which marked the debut of actor Neil Nitin Mukesh. The film received critical acclaim. Now, Sriram is ready with yet another thriller- `Agent Vinod` starring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the lead. "There are a lot of other things to do in a thriller genre, like `Ek Hasina Thi` was a revenge drama, `Johnny Gaddar` (about a) thief and `Agent Vinod` is a spy thriller. I think within a genre, we can show so many facets to a thriller," Sriram told PTI in an interview. "I am partial to thrillers. If somebody gives me a script like `King`s Speech` to do, I would love to do it," he said. `The King`s Speech` is a 2010 British historical drama directed by Tom Hooper. The film was a huge hit. But Sriram`s next directorial venture `Agent Vinod`, a spy thriller, did not have a smooth ride as it faced several glitches. However, the film is now finally up for release on March 23. "There were various reasons for the delay of the film. When we started shooting, we had the script, as it is a very ambitious film, we shot it in various countries. We needed time to prepare things in between, doing recee for schedules, action shots, etc." Sriram said. "We could have released the film last year, but then we had to rush up on post-production and then coming up in the same zone as that of `Don 2`, a successful franchise and then `Mission Impossible`, would not have been a good idea. Hence we thought of pushing it ahead by three-four months," he said. The much-awaited film was in the middle of a number of controversies. There were reports about the "creative differences" between the director and Saif, about the songs and dance sequences being done at the behest of Saif, reports of the involvement of Saif on the edit table, etc. Then there was an alleged brawl between Saif and an NRI businessman at a restaurant recently. "It was a dream project for both of us in a way, so two people`s dream cannot be in sync. So whenever I used to write the script, I would narrate it to him and he used to give feedback, saying `change this` and stuff like that, so this kind of thing I won`t call it a creative difference,"Sriram said. "All the basic songs and dance were part of the film...so I am not that kind of a person, who would listen things and do it and neither is Saif of that kind. We used to do it in his studio, so he can walk in whenever he wants to watch, I don`t think he has the patience to sit and edit the film. If we both had serious heated arguments and fights then we would not have continued," he said. PTI