Desdemona the mouth of the lady) that European women are unwise to marry the temperamental males of other nations. While Shakespeare followed Cinthio's tale very closely in composing "Othello", he deviated significantly in some details. He invented Desdemona's father, Brabantio, and her dissolute Venetian admirer, Roderigo. He invented the entire first act in which Iago arouses Brabantio's prejudices against Othello, and Desdemona defends her choice of husband before the King. Shakespeare considerably expanded the role of Cinthio's ensign's wife. In Cinthio, she is simply Disdemona's companion but in Shakespeare she becomes Desdemona's attendant and confidante. In Cinthio, the ensign filches Disdemona's
Bianca (Othello) set in a contemporary high school. In the 2006 Hindi film adaptation "Omkara", the character was renamed "Billo Chamanbahar" and played by Bipasha Basu. In this variation, the Bianca character is not given a handkerchief, but a jewelled belt called a kamarbandh. On television, Betsy Blair played the character in a 1955 BBC adaptation with Gordon Heath as Othello and Rosemary Harris as Desdemona. Wendy Morgan played Bianca in 1981 in the critically acclaimed BBC complete Shakespeare series. The character was renamed "Lulu" and played by Rachael Stirling in an award winning modern English telemovie first broadcast on ITV on