Hurry Om-kara

Hurry Om-kara

Vishal Bharadwaj is racing against time to release Omkara two weeks before Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Subhash K Jha

Director Vishal Bharadwaj is on edge all the time nowadays. "I have to make it to the theatres on July 28 at any cost," he says. "For two weeks after that there are no significant releases, until Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. Omkara is a film that will need time to grow on audiences, so I need to make use of that gap. It's not just about a deadline. It's a logical date for Omkara because it needs breathing space."

With his deadline approaching rapidly, Vishal has taken on three departments of post-production simultaneously. "That's right," he says wearily. "I'm arranging the dubbing, mixing and background score in three different studios simultaneously."

Omkara is an eagerly-awaited film. "Even I'm wondering what has created the buzz around the film. Is it the stars or the theme?" says Vishal. "Perhaps people want to see what I've done with so many stars — Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu, Viveik Oberoi and Konkona Sen Sharma."

The film about the criminal mafia in UP as transposed into Shakespeare's Othello, has all the ingredients of a masala Hindi film, including item songs by Bipasha Basu. "My producer and I have to justify the film's large budget. Omkara isn't a small film. It has got the biggest stars doing things that audiences have never seen them do before."

Now Vishal is veering towards production himself. "I'm co-producing an anti-smoking feature film No Smoking with Kumar Mangat," he says. "The film will have an anti-smoking message, although in an entertaining way. I'm not new to production though. I co-produced Maqbool, Makdee and my children's film The Blue Umbrella too."

So far, only John Abraham has been finalised in the cast. "And he's essentially a non-smoker… although he once told me he does smoke once in a while, when his mother isn't watching," jokes Vishal.