Looking for a role that doesn`t kill me: Vijay Amritraj

Chennai: Indian tennis legend and Hollywood actor Vijay Amritraj, who made his debut in one of the James Bond film series, is looking for a script that does not kill him on the screens.

At a function here, where he was awarded the `Distinguished NRI Award,` the Chennai-born said, "I did `Octopussy,` they killed me in that one. I did `Star Trek IV,` they killed me in that one. I did another one, they killed me in that one. So, I`m actually trying to find a script that I don`t have to die." Asked how his first movie came his way, the 59-year-old said, "I was playing at Queens Club, two weeks before Wimbledon, when producer Albert Broccoli`s daughter came up to me and asked me if I would have tea with them. "Young tennis player, you know... A young girl coming and asking to have tea with them... Who`s going to say `no`?" he said, laughing. Broccoli made this suggestion that he looked over 500 actors for the part and would like to screen test for the role, he said. "I said `yes` as a laugh, because I felt that there is no one that I have met, in my vast array of my travels, who could say they worked at Pinewood Studios in the morning and played a Wimbledon in the afternoon," he grinned. Replying to whether it was more exciting to act than to play, the former Davis Cup captain for 15 years, said, "It has always been exciting to be in films than to play tennis. But, it doesn`t even come close to winning." Amritraj led the Indian team for over 20 years and took the country to the finals in 1974 and 1987. If you get on the centre court and play a match, it is like doing westend and broadway at the same time. When you win a tennis match, in front of five people or five hundred or five thousand people, it is the biggest adrenaline rush you can possibly have," the 59-year old said. Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor presented the `Distinguished NRI Award` in a function here yesterday. PTI