Former R&AW chief Vikram Sood refuses to waste time on Pathaan, laughs over love story with ‘ISI agent’

Months after the release of Pathaan, which continues to be the biggest blockbuster of the year so far, former R&AW Chief Vikram Sood has said he wouldn’t like to waste time on watching the film. He was talking about spy movies in Bollywood and said they should be fun but realistic. He, however, claimed liking Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger and suggested the one film which he said was an example of how spy films should be made. Also read: Pakistani writer Yasir Hussain reviews Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, calls it ‘a storyless video game’

Pathaan starred Shah Rukh Khan as a R&AW agent, Deepika Padukone as an ISI agent and John Abraham as a former R&AW Agent gone rogue. The film made gross worldwide collection of over ₹1000 crore.

Vikram Sood not interested in Pathaan

In an interview on The Ranveer Show, a clip of which was shared on Reddit, Vikram Sood showed his disappointment over films like Pathaan and said, “I think we haven’t got the art to do this. They could do better. They can be realistic, these are not realistic.”

On being asked to elaborate on his ‘not realistic’ comment, he said, “you are trying to make a James Bond movie which is also not realistic. Then you have this story of the ISI girl and a R&AW man living happily ever after…take a break yaar (laughs). The whole atmospheric…I haven’t seen Pathaan and I won’t see it because I don’t think it is… its not an accurate depiction. Why to waste my time!”

Vikram Sood praises Ek Tha Tiger

Vikram Sood revealed that he had however, watched Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif’s 2012 film Ek Tha Tiger. “I laughed and I enjoyed that because it was so quaint, not because it depicted anything,” he said.

He couldn’t recall the name of Salman’s other blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan but said, “Salman Khan going under a tunnel to Pakistan to deliver a girl who got left in India. Theek hai yaar. Thoda exaggerate… You have to have entertainment which is fun and realistic.”

Vikram Sood votes for this spy film

He did ask fans to watch Tom Hanks’ 2015 film, Bridge of Spies. “That is a real movie. That is how real spy movies are made. It means dealing with actual facts, no blown around, no nothing around, living a lonely life, living all by yourself.”

List of spy films lined up for release

Meanwhile, the film industry is churning out one spy movie after another, along with several web series as well. Salman Khan is set to return with Tiger 3 this year while Shah Rukh Khan will again come back with Jawan in September. Alia Bhatt has her Hollywood spy film Heart of Stone lined up for release on Netflix. Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Varun Dhawan are currently shooting for the Indian leg of web series, Citadel. Ali Fazal’s international film Kandahar released last week and John Abraham’s Tehran are also on the list.