After a lot of heartburn, confusion and passionate debate, the title of Vishal Bharadwaj's film based
on Shakespeare's "Othello" has been decided by a poll. "Omkara" it is.
When the cast and crew failed to choose an apt title out of three options - "Omkara", "Issak" and
"O Saathi Re" - it was decided that it should be finalised by an audience poll.
Kumar Mangat, the producer of the film, tied up with newspapers, magazines, radio, television and
the Net and asked readers and listeners to send their opinion. More than 80 percent voted for
"Omkara".
"We received 2.5 million votes from all over the world and 80 percent of the people voted for
'Omkara'. 'Omkara' is larger than life and we always wanted to have a title beginning with 'O'," said
Mangat.
Ajay Devgan, who plays the title role in the film, is not so happy. He said: "I wanted 'Issak'. People
were a bit confused and that is why we had an audience poll. Now there's no confusion."
However, Saif Ali Khan is thrilled with the result and said: "I am very happy, as I was always partial
to the title 'Omkara'."
Bipasha Basu, one of the female leads in the film, gave a diplomatic response.
"'Omkara' is the director's vision and when the director is happy, everyone is happy. Keeping the
essence of 'Othello' intact, 'Omkara' is an entertainer with commercial actors, treated realistically in
a completely different set-up and with beautiful cinematography," she said.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 14:58 IST