Oberoi with Devgan in Cannes

Cannes, May 20: Viveik Oberoi, who arrived in Cannes today just as his former girlfriend Aishwarya Rai flew out, and Ajay Devgan, his co-star in Omkara, a Bollywood adaptation of Othello, made a tall claim today ? their film has “enhanced” the work of William Shakespeare.

Devgan, who admitted he had not read Othello before shooting began, said the Hindi film was, in some senses, “better”.

Oberoi and Devgan climbed aboard a yacht in Cannes and spoke of how Shakespeare’s tragedy had been freely adapted by the director, Vishal Bhardwaj.

Devgan, whose character is Omkara, the Bollywood equivalent of Othello, said: “I guess everyone knows this is based on Shakespeare’s Othello. And it’s Vishal’s adaptation. When I heard the script I was very excited to do it.”

He continued: “Usually what happens that when you see the final draft, (you think), ‘ok, it’s nice but not as you thought it would be.’ But this is one film, I saw day before yesterday, and I am as excited about it as I was the first day. It shaped up very well. Vishal is a brilliant writer and director himself.”

Omkara, which is to be released in July, is intended to be a “gritty” movie ? and will be the first film which will be available on Eros’s new Broadband “Bollywood on Demand” service.

Talking about the adaptation, Devgan said: “We picked up the story line and it’s completely adapted by Vishal. The way he has adapted it I would want to say he has done a great job ? for me it is better than the original, the way he has adapted it.”

Lest it be thought he was claiming Bhardwaj could teach the Bard a thing or two about writing scripts, Devgan explained: “I am not letting Shakespeare down or anything of the sort but when you make a novel into a film, there has to be some changes according to our country ? though the whole credit is to Shakespeare.”

The story, set in Uttar Pradesh, is about the mafia which works for politicians.While Devgan plays Omkara, Oberoi is Kesu, “a tough guy with a golden heart”. Saif Ali Khan is Langda Tyagi in the film.

Other important cast members are Naseeruddin Shah (Bhaisaab); Kareena Kapoor (Dolly); Bipasha Basu (Billo); and Konkona Sen Sharma (Indu).

“What I was trying to say (is) the original was not a film, when we talk of Shakespeare,” Devgan pointed out. “To adapt the original to a film, Vishal has done a great job. That’s what I meant to say. The books are so fabulous, when you adapt them to film, they don’t come up to expectations.”

He agreed the film was “about jealousy ? Indians are more melodramatic about expressing it.”

Did the Pramod Mahajan affair indicate that Indians were, by nature, a jealous people?

Oberoi was characteristically eloquent: “The fact that Shakespeare, one of the greatest writers of all time, devoted an entire play to this emotion is a large statement on how global jealousy is.”

What about jealousy in Bollywood?

“Different cultures express jealousy in different ways, some more openly, some conceal it better. It would be unfair to generalise (about Bollywood).”

Omkara “is a very interesting interpretation of Shakespeare and I might stick my neck out and be in a little bit of a sacrilegious mood to say that it enhances what Shakespeare started up with,” ventured Oberoi.

“Vishalbhai’s interpretation is quite a genius interpretation because it takes Othello, which is (set in) a different culture, different time period, and brings it to today within the UP political mafia ? and yet makes it so identifiable in India and globally.”

He said: “When I read the play, I was bored of Cassio. He is very uni-dimensional. When I read the script, I was floored.”

This is the kind of conversation that Aishwarya must miss.