extracts from the book about the making of OMKARA

[last post in thread]

A coffee table book about the making of the film (and loaded, in all likelihood, with eye candy) was released in May 2006 at Cannes. Two extracts have made their way online. Something to savour before I get my hands on the book:

...
I set the story in the political mafia of Uttar Pradesh... a strife ridden political melt pot in North India... I spent my childhood in the small town of Meerut in UP... This interpretation of Othello as my characters populate a place and language that I have known closely... Somewhere they have left their Shakespeare roots far behind and surrendered to me... For example I based the character of the central antagonist, Langda Tyagi, on a childhood friend whose growth as a gangster had happened in front of my eyes.
...
When it came down the look I am a big fan of the "wild west" genre of Hollywood films. I reworked Othello and his gang, on page, into a band of outlaws from the great outback. The workings of the gang would be rooted in reality. But the mood of the film was deliberately chosen to resemble the dusty westerns of the 60s.
...
[some more]

...
Discussions during this phase also led to some of the film's grammar such as ending sequences at extreme wide shots and jumping the axis at various points to embellish the narrative.

Tassaduq made Vishal see Roman Polanski's Chinatown as a template for the lensing of the film. They decided to go for a lot of 25-30 lenses even for the extreme wides. It was also decided to shoot on super 35 with Cooke lenses which added that extra amount of detailing to the wides.
...
[all this and more]

In a Mumbai Mirror interview, Vishal offered some more interesting tidbits about his vision for Omkara. MM is notorious for generating and using dud URLs that don't survive more than a few several hours; so, it's a mercy to find the contents on Naachgaana.com:

...
In the original, Iago overhears Othello's conversation, but in my film I have adapted this and used mobile phones and speaker phones instead. It retains the essence of the play and also brings in technology to make it contemporary. If Shakespeare had written Othello in today's time, I am sure he would have also used mobile phones and spy cameras.
...