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Aamir Khan wanted to play Langda Tyagi in Omkara but we felt he was not the right choice, says writer: ‘But Saif Ali Khan had a problem with…’

Omkara was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello, which starred Kareena Kapoor, Ajay Devgn and Saif Ali Khan, among others.

Aamir Khan wanted to play Langda Tyagi. (Photo: IMDb)

Omkara, made in 2006, came into existence when filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj expressed his desire to adapt Shakespeare’s Othello. Vishal shared his thoughts with writer Robin Bhatt and after much discussion, they felt that Ajay Devgn would be the right actor for the lead role. Robin, in a new interview, shared that after finalising Ajay and Kareena Kapoor for the lead roles, they were stuck on casting Langda Tyagi’s part in the film as they had two promising actors willing to do the part.

Speaking to Friday Talkies, Robin said, “Aamir was ready to do the villain’s role. The second choice we had was Saif Ali Khan. However, at one point, we decided that Aamir was not the right choice for the film.” This made them offer the role to Saif Ali Khan, but the problem with him was that he was not well-versed with the local dialect of western UP, where the film was set.

Robin shared that since Saif was ready to do the hard work to get into the character, he chopped his hair and got himself a tutor to improve his language. “Saif’s problem was the language required here. But then he started going for tuitions, he started training with another, chopped his hair,” he shared. Saif’s co-star in the film, Deepak Dobriyal, was his language coach for the film. “Saif would sit with Deepak and rehearse for hours, and he worked hard because this was not his language. Deepak helped him a lot,” he shared.

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Previously, talking about preparing for the role of Omkara, Saif Ali Khan had told Film Companion, “While preparing for Omkara and learning the accent, I had gone to the Maldives at one point and Italy at another. I remember jogging in Italy and listening to this on my headphones and I felt like an actor. I have never been better prepared, and on the first day, with the first shot we took, I was sitting with Deepak Dobriyal on a bridge and Vishal was far away. He was so pleased because I had learnt my lines and delivered them well. It was sync sound as well so there was no dubbing.”

He also recalled how Vishal asked him to shave his head. “I wanted to grow it and look like Nirmal Pandey from Bandit Queen. This went on for a long time. He finally said it’s Eid, so do a kurbani in the name of God, and then we buzzed it and it looked great,” he said.

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