Omkara (film)

Omkara (film)

Omkara is a 2006 Indian film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, co-written and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. It starred Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, and Kareena Kapoor in the lead roles, supported by Vivek Oberoi, Naseeruddin Shah, and Konkona Sen Sharma with a cameo role from Bipasha Basu. The director Vishal Bhardwaj himself composed the entire music for the film, including the background score, with lyrics by Gulzar. The film is set in Meerut, a town in Western Uttar Pradesh.

The film was showcased at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival along with a book on the making of Omkara. It was also selected to be screened at the Cairo International Film Festival, where Bhardwaj was awarded for Best Artistic Contribution in Cinema of a Director. The film also won three awards at the Kara Film Festival, an award at the Asian Festival of First Films, three National Film Awards, and seven Filmfare Awards.

The film became part of a series by Bhardwaj of film interpretations of popular literary works, including Maqbool (2003) based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, The Blue Umbrella (2007) based on Ruskin Bond's The Blue Umbrella, and 7 Khoon Maaf which is an adaptation of Bond's Susanna's Seven Husbands.