Saif Ali Khan was not the first choice of Vishal Bhardwaj to play the role of Langda Tyagi in Omkara
Saif Ali Khan's performance as Langda Tyagi in Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara earned him widespread acclaim. The character's negative persona was cherished by the audience. However, do you know he was not the first choice for the role?
Yes, Vishal Bhardwaj recently revealed that before he offered the role of Langda Tyagi in Omkara to Saif Ali Khan, Aamir Khan asked him to consider him for the role, however, the film couldn't be made with Aamir Khan as he was busy with Rang De Basanti and other projects and then the filmmaker offered the role of Saif.
In an interview with Mid-Day, Vishal Bhardwaj said, "Aamir was so fascinated with this character, he said whenever you make this film I would love to be considered for Langda Tyagi. That remained with me. The film didn’t happen and I was not working for 1.5 years. I wanted to make a film desperately. Aamir was busy with other things. He was shooting Rang De Basanti."
The filmmaker further recalled how Saif Ali Khan came into the picture and said, "At that time I saw Saif in Dil Chahta Hai. Saif us se pehle jo tha na, uski voice thodi feminine thi, uski performance ajeeb si hua karti thi. In Dil Chahta Hai he worked on himself a lot. He was a different Saif. Mujhe laga iss bande ke andar zabardast fire hai, isne apne aap ko poora transform kar diya. I told him if you are ready to work hard, no one will expect this from you. He was ready for that, except for cutting his hair. He did not want to cut his hair and it took a lot of convincing. Otherwise, everything else he did was more than we asked for."
Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara is a crime drama film adapted from William Shakespeare's Othello. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vivek Oberoi, and Bipasha Basu. The film was a moderate commercial success at the box office due to its dark theme and strong language which kept family audiences away.
Meanwhile, Saif Ali Khan will be next seen in the Telugu film Devara helmed by Koratala Siva. The film also stars Jr NTR and Janhvi Kapoor and is scheduled to hit the theatres in 2024. After playing the role of Ravana in Adipurush, Saif will be seen playing the antagonist in Devara.
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 "Not Saif Ali Khan, but this superstar was Vishal Bhardwaj's first choice for Omkara")
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