Aamir Khan Wanted Saif Ali Khan's Role In Omkara, Vishal Bhardwaj Reveals 'I Thought If This...'

Director Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara is one of his most celebrated films. The film stars Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Ajay Devgn among others in key roles. The film is touted as one of Saif’s best performances and his character Langda Tyagi is one of his most talked about characters to date. Now, Vishal Bhardwaj has revealed that Aamir Khan wanted to play the character as well.

Speaking to Mid-Day, Vishal 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 a 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.”

Vishal 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 another star with this. At the time, I had seen Saif’s work.”

Speaking about why Aamir wasn’t cast in Omkara, Vishal 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.”

“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,” he added.

Vishal shared that he asked Saif “Are you ready to work hard? Because nobody would be able to imagine that you can do that role. Nobody could imagine.” “But he was ready to do that. He really (worked hard), except for cutting his hair. With great effort, we convinced him to cut his hair because he was not ready to cut it. Other than that he was more than I asked for.” he added.