Saif Ali Recalls Why He Was Denied Ajay Devgn’s Role In Omkara: You’re Too Handsome For Othello

Though Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara did not work at the box office, it gained cult status over the years with television premieres and OTT streaming. Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Konkona Sensharma and the rest of the cast were in their top forms. Ahead of Omkara’s 20th anniversary, Saif, who played the famous character, Langda Tyagi, recalled getting a call from Vishal shortly after his mother, Sharmila Tagore, said he must explore Shakespearean roles ‘like Othello’. Omkara is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello.

In an interaction with IMDb, Saif continued, “It was  , saying, ‘I’m thinking of doing Shakespeare.’ I was like, ‘What?’ And he’s like, ‘Yes, Othello’.” Khan also added a light-hearted detail about the casting conversation, revealing, “Vishal came over, and he started telling me about this, and I said, ‘Should I play Othello?’ And he said, ‘No, no, you’re too handsome to play him.’

Recalling how Omkara helped him with Tanhaji – The Unsung Warrior, the actor shared, “With this film, a bit like Omkara, I was like, okay, I just have to have fun. And I don’t have anything to do, because Ajay is playing Tanhaji. But Tanhaji, like a very respectable hero, is a little bit, not flat, but he’s a little bit quiet also. He’s not a very spiky, dramatic kind of person. So he’s underplayed, and the film’s going on. So to make it fun and to make it work, Udaybhan’s character has to do the heavy lifting.”

In Omkara, Saif plays the role of Ajay’s right-hand man. Langda Tyagi is fiercely loyal to Omkara. But when he has to pass the leadership to the next person, Tyagi feels betrayed when Omkara chooses an educated and upper-class Kesu (Vivek Oberoi) to become the next bahubali. He vows to destroy Omkara and Kesu. Saif’s character in the film is based on Othello’s Iago.

Workwise, Saif was last seen in Kartavya, the Netflix film directed by Pulkit. He plays the role of Pawan Malik, an honest cop, who is deputed to provide security to a journalist. However, the journalist is killed, and Pawan investigates the case.