Vishal Bhardwaj, in a recent interview, opened up on how he got Saif Ali Khan onboard to play Langda Tyagi in Omkara. He also talked about how Aamir Khan was interested in taking up this role.
Saif Ali Khan was a complete revelation as Langda Tyagi in Vishal Bhardwaj‘s 2006 crime drama Omkara. Touted to be one of the turning points in his career, the actor had received several accolades upon the film’s release.
Recently, in an interview with Mid-day, the film’s director Vishal Bhardwaj revealed that Aamir Khan had expressed his interest to play Langda Tyagi in Omkara while they were working together on a project which failed to materialise.
The filmmaker said, “For Saif, I think, Aamir is responsible for that “We were doing that film together, so I spent a lot of time with Aamir. He is lovely company, and it’s fun to hang around with him. Aamir would share what he had in his mind and ask me what I had in my mind to plan for the future. So, I told him that I have this Othello, and this Langda Tyagi character with me.”
Recalling how Aamir was fascinated about this character, he continued, “He told me, ‘Whenever you make this film, I’d love to be considered for Langda Tyagi.’ So that remained with me, but the film didn’t happen, I wasn’t working for one and a half years. I wanted to make a film desperately, so I thought if this character can excite Aamir so much, then I can excite some another star with this. At the time, I had seen Saif’s work.”
When asked why Aamir couldn’t do Omkara, Bhardwaj revealed, “He was busy, he did Rang De Basanti, and I didn’t want to get stuck for another one and a half years. I wanted to (make the film), with whoever I get.”
Vishal told the news portal that he went through several ‘ajeeb’ performances of Saif before casting him as the main antagonist in his film.
“When I saw Saif in Dil Chahta Hai, what Saif was before that, his voice was a little feminine, his performance would be ajeeb (weird). But in Dil Chahta Hai, he really worked on himself. In Dil Chahta Hai, he was a different Saif. I felt that he had a fire in him and had transformed himself. And he had shot up,” the ‘Haider’ director recalled in his interview.
Vishal revealed that he finalised Saif to play the main antagonist as the latter was willing to put in the hard work, However, he also added that the actor was reluctant to cut his hair for the role.
Omkara is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello and features an ensemble cast which includes Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Konkona Sensharma and Bipasha Basu. The film bagged three National Awards.
