Rekha Bhardwaj says she initially did not want to sing “Namak Ishq Ka” in “Omkara” but director-composer Vishal Bhardwaj, who had recorded an early rendition by her on his Motorola flip phone, was keen to have the singer on board.While making “Omkara”, his adaptation of “Othello”, Vishal would often discuss the making of the music with his singer-wife Rekha, who revealed that the high notes in the track were not there originally.”When ‘Namak Ishq Ka’ happened, I literally earned it because Vishal was preparing and composing songs. He had very little time, so he would come and sing the songs to me when he composed one or two lines, and would say, ‘Is it sounding good? Should I elaborate on this?'”Till ‘Namak Ishq Ka’ happened, I sang mostly emotional, melancholic, soulful songs only because I used to feel that this is what I’m capable of,” the singer told PTI in an interview.According to Rekha, her “riyaaz” at the time was at its peak and Vishal would often  make her sing the songs he had composed for the film, which will complete 20 years of its release on July 28.”…Because that would give him perspective, even if it was a male song. So, for this song, he asked me to sing, and I just sang, and naturally the high notes got added. The high was not composed at that time, but I just sang it, and he said ‘wow’. He recorded it on his Motorola flip phone and said, “Let me record this. You will forget it, and I will also forget it.””Later, I said ‘I can’t sing this song. It’s a very difficult song’. If you see the graph, it changes and changes and changes. Also, it was a bit of a challenge for me to sing that kind of a raunchy song.”The film’s soundtrack, composed by Vishal with lyrics by Gulzar, is still counted amongst the most celebrated music albums in Hindi cinema with hits like “O Saathi Re”, “Omkara”, “Beedi”, “Jag Ja”, “Naina”, “Laakad” and “Namak Ishq Ka”.The film featured Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Bipasha Basu, Konkona Sen Sharma, Naseeruddin Shah and Deepak Dobriyal in key roles.The 2006 crime drama is regarded as one of Hindi cinema’s finest literary adaptations. It was the second film in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakepearean trilogy, following the 2003 film “Maqbool”, inspired by Macbeth, and preceding the 2014 film “Haider”, an adaptation of Hamlet.