Rahul Bose is the only actor in Bollywood who straddles the world of professional rugby as well as acting.
The actor has just been selected to represent India at the World Cup qualifier for the Asian zone rugby tournament to be held in Bangkok. Now, Rahul, with his team, is all set to take on the other top Asian teams and emerge as one of the top five nations in the continent.
"This tournament is a qualifier to proceed into the next group amongst the Asian nations of the world. It would be a big step for India. It's a quadrangular knockout tournament. The other teams are Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan," he says.
However, when someone from media stated that a win in this tournament is guaranteed, Rahul reverted back saying, "That's not true at all. It's utterly inaccurate and highly exaggerated. The best 32 nations play the World Cup. India is ranked 83rd and has been playing rugby for 100 years. We were recognized only 10 years ago and have decades to go before we reach the World Cup."
He mentioned though this would be his last international tournament. Playing rugby entails a lot of injuries and Rahul has had his fair share.
"I have had two major arthroscopies, six broken fingers, including two shattered thumbs and three broken noses. The most serious one was when dirt was kicked violently into my eyes. I almost lost my eyesight because there were 210 pieces of stones stuck in the corneas of both my eyes."
Rahul Bose's presence has always been underplayed by the film industry, even though the critics and the masses have applauded the actor's talent. His recent releases have been the Bengali film Anuranan directed by Aniruddha Roy-Chowdhury and the American production Before The Rains, directed by Santosh Sivan.
Interestingly, Rahul almost lost out on the role in Before The Rains because the makers wanted him to audition for the role and he was not too well. "I sent them a 7-8 minute video only for Santosh as I respect him enormously. The next thing I knew was I was a part of the project. The only other time I had auditioned for a film was 15 years ago for Midnight's Children. Coincidentally, I bagged that role as well. But unfortunately the project could not take off as the Indian and Sri Lankan governments wouldn't allow it."
