Throwback: As Maqbool turns 19, Vishal Bhardwaj's other Shakespearean inspirations revealed

After Maqbool in 2004, which was adapted from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, did you know Vishal Bhardwaj wanted to adapt Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. He instead adapted Shakespeare’s Othello into Omkara.Vishal’s fascination with Shakespeare had to do with the lack of story-writing talent in Bollywood. He decided to adapt Shakespeare after watching Gulzar saab's Angoor, which was an adaptation of A Comedy Of Errors. After Maqbool he wanted to adapt Julius Caesar for producer Bobby Bedi. Sanjay Dutt and Irrfan Khan were Vishal’s choices for the roles of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.But then Vishal met Shekhar Kapur and the idea for Mantra, starring Preity Zinta, was born. Vishal and Shekhar (the filmmakers not the musicians) started working on that project with seven-eight writers for over six months. Later Shekhar and Vishal had differences over the final outcome of the script and Mantra was dropped.