Sriram Raghavan is least affected by talks of actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor’s wedding dominating his directorial action-thriller, Agent Vinod. “My job was to make the film. Now, Saif is working hard to present and market it well. Any publicity is good publicity, so, as far as Agent Vinod is getting discussed even as a film after which Saif and Kareena will tie the knot, so it be, as far as it’s making headlines,” said the 48-year-old director, who worked with Saif in Ek Hasina Thi (2004) and won critical acclaim for Johnny Gaddar (2007).

Saif’s recommendation led Raghavan to consider Kareena for the film. And the biggest challenge, says the director, was to cast this real-life couple on reel. “It is hard to detach them from their real self and make them portray two different characters, pitted against each other in the film. But they did full justice to it,” says Raghavan.

An equally tough task was to make Kareena do the action sequences, says Raghavan. “Action isn’t Kareena’s cup of tea. Though she gave her best shot in all the action sequences, she enjoyed doing the mujra (Dil Mera Muft Ka) the most. And she did it beautifully,” he says, agreeing to the fact that veteran actor Rekha’s mujras from Umrao Jaan (1981) inspired the song. Raghavan plans to cast actors John Abraham and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for his next sci fi film, Happy Birthday. “But nothing is confirmed as of now,” he says.