For one of his endorsements, Saif Ali Khan may be advocating 'Make it large'. Guess the same philosophy holds true for his films as well. While Agent Vinod is definitely larger than life, it has also been revealed that the film is longer than an average commercial Bollywood affair.
"Yes, the film is a little longer than an average mandate of two hour requirement. Agent Vinod runs into two hours and thirty minutes. It is considerably longer if one looks at 90 per cent of other Hindi films which are being made in the recent times. However there won't be any negotiation on the running length as Saif as well as his director Sriram Raghavan believe that ‘Agent Vinod’ needs such kind of time and space for its story telling. The final edit has been locked for 150 minutes and that's the way it is going to remain", informs a prominent crew member.
In fact when they met some exhibitors who wanted to know the final length of Agent Vinod, Saif and Sriram were candid enough to inform them about the real duration. On being asked if the film would be further edited, they put their point of view on the table.
"Exhibitors thought that by reducing the film's length, they could pump in more number of shows per multiplex. It was a valid point but this is when Saif and Sriram showed the film to them and informed them about the parts they would possibly have to cut down in the final edit. Now since these were really entertaining parts and even exhibitors didn't want these elements to go away, they agreed for the film to remain as is", the source continues.
All of this means that now this spy thriller which travels continents won't have any jerky moments in its narrative where one would have otherwise got an impression of a sudden jump being introduced due to forced editing. "Yes, two and a half hours duration is something that we felt was right since this is the kind of narrative that Agent Vinod demands. The story and scale requires extended story telling. Since this is a tout script, I had to give some breathers in between as well", smiles Raghavan.