{"id":544490,"date":"2026-07-16T14:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/544490\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:28:12","slug":"saif-ali-khan-reveals-why-vishal-bhardwaj-refused-him-for-ajay-devgns-omkara-role-youre-too-handsome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/544490\/","title":{"rendered":"Saif Ali Khan reveals why Vishal Bhardwaj refused him for Ajay Devgn\u2019s Omkara role: \u2018You\u2019re too handsome\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actor Saif Ali Khan<\/a> recently shared the story behind landing one of the most memorable roles of his career, and it all began with a conversation he had with his mother, veteran actor Sharmila Tagore. What started as a chat about Shakespeare took an unbelievable turn when filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj called him just moments later.<\/p>\n

\"WhyWhy Vishal Bhardwaj cast Saif Ali Khan as Langda Tyagi<\/p>\n

Speaking to IMDb, Saif recalled how the unexpected phone call eventually led him to play Langda Tyagi in Omkara, a performance that is still regarded as one of the finest of his career.<\/p>\n

A phone call that came at the perfect moment<\/p>\n

Speaking about the incident, Saif said he was shooting in Jaipur when his mother encouraged him to take up a Shakespearean role. \u201cI was actually in Jaipur, and I was staying in this hotel, shooting for something, I can\u2019t remember what. My mom had just spoken to me, and she said, \u2018Yeah, you\u2019re becoming an interesting actor, and I like how you\u2019re developing. You should do Shakespeare.\u2019 I said, \u2018That\u2019d be great if I could.\u2019 And then she suggested, \u2018You should do Othello or something.\u2019 Then the phone rang. It was Vishal Bhardwaj. He said, \u201cI\u2019m thinking of offering a film to you. I\u2019m thinking of doing Shakespeare.\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat?\u201d He said, \u201cYes, Othello.\u201d I went, \u201cWhat?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019re too handsome to play Othello\u2019<\/p>\n

At first, Saif believed Vishal wanted him to play Othello, a role that was eventually portrayed by Ajay Devgn as Omkara. But the filmmaker had a completely different character in mind. \u201cHe came over and started telling me about it. I asked, \u2018Should I play Othello?\u2019 He said, \u2018No, no, you\u2019re too handsome to play Othello.\u2019 (laughs) Which is\u2026 well, that was his way of saying it. But then he said, \u2018I\u2019m offering you a very interesting role.\u2019 He offered me the part of Langda Tyagi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saif admitted he couldn\u2019t help but ask Vishal what made him think of him for the role. The filmmaker revealed that his performance in Dil Chahta Hai convinced him. The answer caught the actor completely off guard, as he never imagined his charming role in the coming-of-age film would lead to being cast as the menacing Langda Tyagi.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Saif Ali Khan?<\/p>\n

Saif Ali Khan will next star in Priyadarshan\u2019s Haiwaan along with Akshay Kumar. The first look posters were unveiled on July 15 and will be released in theatres on September 11, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor Saif Ali Khan recently shared the story behind landing one of the most memorable roles of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397,32626,247554,13414,13413,78486],"class_list":["post-544490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies","tag-omkara","tag-othello","tag-saif-ali-khan","tag-sharmila-tagore","tag-vishal-bhardwaj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}