Tennis star Leander Paes turns Bollywood actor

Wimbledon doubles champion Leander Paes is serving up a new career for himself: as a Bollywood action hero.

He told India’s Hindustan Times newspaper he has signed on two Hindi films. “Both have me in the lead role as an action hero. Shooting begins this December,” the paper quoted him as saying.

While he would not be drawn on one film, he described the second, whose working title is “Rajdhani”, as “a common man's story that urges you to be the change that you want to see in the world."

Turns out the actor is a long-time film buff. “I love watching [movies]. The ability of a film to transport one to another world for the extent of two-odd hours is exhilarating."

And he comes from a cultural family, with the 19th-century Bengali poet and dramatist Michael Madhusudan Dutt being an ancestor from my mother's side. “That takes care of the pedigree,” he said. “As far as I am concerned I have played out some of my most intimate personal moments in front of stadiums full of people, that surely has taken care of stage fright of any kind!"

As for the naysayers who feel he couldn’t possibly make the transition, he says: “There's always the chance of failure. But as a kid with no backhand or first serve, who thought I would win one Wimbledon, let alone five?"
 

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