Kareena Kapoor hosted Omkara screening for directors, expected ‘everyone to praise’ her: ‘They all said you are nice, but Saif is fab’

Kareena Kapoor is completing 25 years in the movies this year and over these two and a half decades, Kareena has become known as someone who can be a movie star but can also showcase her talent when she is required to deliver strong performances. One such role of hers is from Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara where she played the director’s version of Desdemona in the film based on Othello. At a recent event, Kareena recalled how she was quite proud of herself for that performance and even organised a special show for some renowned movie directors so they could come and watch her performance. To her surprise, Saif Ali Khan’s performance as Langda Tyagi bowled them over and instead of praising her, they all just flocked towards Saif.

Talking at the event, Kareena said that she organised a trial show where she invited Mani Ratnam, and other respected directors. “I said it’s such a good performance, I am going to call all the directors. From Mani Ratnam to everybody… all the directors. I am going to have this trial and call all the directors because I think I have done really well in this movie. I had this in Film City and everyone was there and of course, Vishal, Konkana Sensharma, Vivek Oberoi, Saif Ali Khan, everyone was there. And I was excited that they are going to watch me as Desdemona,” she recalled.

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She recalled that during the interval, there was very strong chatter about Saif and by the end, everyone in the audience was just mesmerised by him. “At interval, everyone came out and said you are really nice, we loved everyone and Saif was amazing. And then, the movie ended and everyone was like ‘You were fab but where’s Saif?’ I was like ‘what is happening? I called everybody to praise me.’ Then suddenly everyone just flocked to Saif and was praising him,” she recalled with a laugh. Saif and Kareena started dating each other a few years after Omkara. They are now married with two children.

At the same event, which was in honour of her film festival as she complete 25 years in the business, she was asked about Saif’s reaction to the same and she said that he was “extremely happy about it.” She added that he wants to watch Omkara and Ashoka at the festival.