Kareena Kapoor: 'I'd called everyone to watch Omkara, they came out praising Saif!'

Stills from Omkara (2006)

The launch of the Kareena Kapoor Khan Film Festival hosted by PVR Inox proved to be an evening full of insights into the actress' 25-year-long journey. The actress shared an anecdote from the time when the 2006 film Omkara had released. The Vishal Bhardwaj-directed film, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, had an ensemble cast. But one actor who had stunned everyone with his onscreen transformation was Saif Ali Khan.

Kareena had hosted a trial screening of Omkara back then, hoping to collect praise for her role from the film fraternity. Little did she know that Saif would steal the show. Saif played the role of Langda Tyagi in the film. Narrating the incident, the actress said, "Saif was out of this world in Omkara. I had a trial where I had called everybody. I said, it's such a good performance, I am going to call all the directors, from Mani Ratnam to everybody, because I think I have done really well in this movie."

"So I had this trial in Film City, everybody was there, from Vishal (Bhardwaj) Koko (Konkona Sen Sharma), Vivek (Oberoi) and Saif. I was very excited that everyone was going to watch me as Desdemona, because Shakespeare never really wrote too many female characters. So I made them all watch it. At interval, everyone came out and said, yeah, really nice, we loved everyone, and Saif is amazing. And when the movie ended, everyone said, ‘You are fab, but where is Saif?' I thought, what is happening? I expected everybody to praise me. Everyone just flocked to Saif," she shared.

This was before Tashan (2008). Saif and Kareena fell in love on the sets of Tashan and later tied the knot. He is an extremely supporting husband, who, Kareena revealed, is looking forward to watching her films at the festival. Kareena said he was extremely happy when he heard about the festival. "When I told him about this, he was very excited. So he wants to watch 'Omkara' and 'Ashoka' for sure," she added.

The week-long film festival will run in over 30 cinemas halls in 15 cities from September 20 to September 27.