Indian filmmaker Sriram Raghavan said an India-Pakistan intelligence angle was the reason why veteran actor Dharmendra did not join the 2012 film Agent Vinod. He shared this during a recent interaction at a film event in Mumbai.

The Badlapur director said he had approached Dharmendra for the role of the head of RAW when the script was still being written. He explained that the story included an India- Pakistan backdrop.

“After Johnny Gaddaar, I told him I wanted to work with him again, and he said yes,” Raghavan said. “When I was writing Agent Vinod, we had a role of the RAW chief. When I told him about it, he said, ‘RAW head, yaar… it will be India-Pakistan. I don’t want to do it.’ I said, ‘I respect that,’ and we did not pursue that track.”

During the same event, Raghavan also spoke about his recent film, Ikkis. The biographical war drama was based on Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal and featured Agastya Nanda in the lead role.

Raghavan said he had felt surprised by the audience response to Ikkis. “We were quite baffled by the response after the film came out. I hope people will watch the film at the click of a button,” he said, referring to its release on streaming.

He added that making Ikkis had been a meaningful experience. Speaking about directing Dharmendra in the film, Raghavan said, “Dharam ji was among the first people to whom I narrated the story. He loved it unconditionally.”

The Andhadhun director also said that Dharmendra contributed ideas to shape his character. “He was full of ideas. He had so many things to say,” Raghavan stated.

Raghavan said he remained open to new scripts despite recent box office challenges. “If ten scripts are coming to me, I can’t miss it. What if one turns out to be a Salim-Javed script?” he said.

The filmmaker’s remarks highlighted his past collaboration plans with Dharmendra and his reflections on recent projects, including Agent Vinod and Ikkis.