Vishal Bharadwaj has been declared the Best Director at the Cairo Film Festival for his film Omakra. The announcement was made on 5 December. Currently Bharadwaj is in Marrakech attending the Morocco Film Festival (MFF) with producer Kumar Mangat where Omkara was screened. The film also bagged an award at another festival on the same day.
The award ceremony for Cairo Film Festival will take place on 8 December in Cairo. Since Bharadwaj is in Marrakech currently, it isn’t certain if he will be present to receive the award; nevertheless he is putting in best efforts to get the visa soon. If all turns well, producer Kumar Mangat and Robin Bhatt too will accompany Bharadwaj to Cairo.
Omkara grossed over $3.1 million (Rs 140 million) at the box office internationally. It is an Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello. The film stars Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Viveik Oberoi and Bipasha Basu. Although the film didn’t do exceptionally well at the Indian box office, it received tremendous critical acclaim.