(From left) Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi: In hostile terrain

Lucknow, Jan. 30: Something in the heat and dust of Uttar Pradesh seems to trigger moments of madness in the minds of jealous young men in love. Over half the attacks on women in the state’s cities are crimes of passion, police say.

So when Vishal Bharadwaj thought of making an Indian version of Othello, he had no doubt where he should shoot.

Unfortunately for the director, his search for authenticity has raised the passions of a whole lot of young men at Lucknow University, one of the film’s locations, who feel their alma mater is being given a bad name.

Not because the Indian Othello, a student (played by Ajay Devgan), is shown throttling his lady love (Kareena Kapoor) but because the film shows violence during student elections ? something the campus is notorious for.

Bharadwaj, the director of Maqbool ? which draws on another Shakespearean play, Macbeth ? is here with his crew and has already begun shooting his new film, tentatively titled Omkara.

The first scene filmed today, showing Kareena in a classroom, raised no murmurs. It was the next one that started the rumblings on the campus.

The scene kicks off with student leader Keshav Upadhyay (played by Vivek Oberoi) arriving on a motorcycle with his supporters. As he begins campaigning for the post of students’ union president, opponents fire a couple of shots.

“Cut,” a pleased director shouted.

The students, however, were stunned. The scene was too close to actual elections on the campus, where a student leader was killed two years ago, said one of them. “The film will give us a bad name,” he said.

The huge security provided by the state government didn’t allow the anger to spill onto the streets today, but by afternoon the campus was simmering.

The crew tried to explain that the institution is featured in the film as “Saketh Vidyapith”, but the students think this makes no difference. “I accept this kind of violence does actually happen here, but why should it be shown in a film?” fumed Vinod Tripathi, students’ union general secretary.

Proctor V.D. Mishra, however, said the film unit had permission to shoot on campus and the students wouldn’t be allowed to disrupt it.

The crew feels the university’s traditional Avadhi architecture, with its multiple domes and arched doorways, high ceilings and winding wooden staircases, would lend the movie ? which explores the mind’s darkest depths ? an air of mystery and grandeur.

When the students first heard of the shooting, they had apparently been excited. The canteen is still plastered with posters of the film’s cast, which includes Saif Ali Khan, Bipasha Basu, Naseeruddin Shah and Konkona Sen Sharma.

Bharadwaj insists that the “dusty, merciless terrain of Uttar Pradesh” is the perfect stage for his “drama on Othello-type jealousy”.

Shivdas Rastogi, a police officer in Lucknow, admits that the conservative state, where feudal notions of male honour still hold sway, spawns Othellos by the dozen. He cites a case he is investigating, that of a 23-year-old businessman who hired two men to throw acid on a Delhi college girl.

The girl had visited Lucknow on a vacation and had just spent a day with the accused, having lunch and watching a movie together before returning to Delhi. Yet the man was convinced she loved him and, when reality dawned, accused her of “betraying his trust”.