Vishal Bhardwaj revealed that Aamir Khan was keen to play the role of Langda Tyagi in the 2006 film Omkara; however, it was later played by Saif Ali Khan. Talking to Midday, the filmmaker said that for Saif’s casting, Aamir was responsible.
“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. He said, ‘Whenever you make this film, I want to be considered for this part.'”
When asked why Aamir did not play the role in Omkara, Vishal said that Khan was doing Rang De Basanti at that time, and he did not want to get stuck for, ‘another one and a half years’ as he wanted to make the film with whoever he got.
Further, talking about casting Saif in Omkara, Vishal said, “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).”
However, when the filmmaker saw Saif in Dil Chahta Hai, he worked on himself, and he felt that the actor was different. “I felt that he had a fire in him and had transformed himself. And he had shot up,” he added.
Meanwhile, Omkara also starred Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vivek Oberoi and Bipasha Basu in lead roles.
