Omkara is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film adapted from William Shakespeare's Othello, co-written and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj.[2][3][4] It stars an ensemble cast of Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vivek Oberoi and Bipasha Basu in lead roles. The director Vishal Bhardwaj himself composed the entire music for the film, including the background score, with lyrics by Gulzar.[5] The film is set in Meerut, a city in Uttar Pradesh.[6] It is the second film in Bhardwaj's trilogy of Shakespeare adaptations, which began with Maqbool (2003) and was completed with Haider (2014).
Omkara released on 28 July 2006, and proved to be a moderate commercial success at the box office, due to its dark theme and strong language which kept away family audiences. However, it received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its direction, story, screenplay, dialogues, soundtrack and performances of the ensemble cast, with particular praise directed towards Devgn, Kapoor, Khan, Oberoi, and Sharma's performances.
At the 54th National Film Awards, Omkara won 3 awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Sen Sharma). At the 52nd Filmfare Awards, the film received 19 nominations, including Best Director (Bhardwaj) and Best Actress (Kapoor), and won a leading 9 awards, including Best Actress (Critics) (Kapoor), Best Supporting Actress (Sen Sharma) and Best Villain (Khan),
Omkara was showcased in the Marché du Film section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival along with a book on the making of the film.[7][8] 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, in addition to winning 3 awards at the Kara Film Festival,[9] and an award at the Asian Festival of First Films.
