Kathmandu For an actor, even though it is a smaller role in Hollywood that is a big achievement,” well-known Nepali actor Vijay Lama says of an actor’s Hollywood love. After 33 years in the Nepali film industry, the versatile Lama is a part of a Hollywood production starring alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Josh Brolin and Jake Gyllenhaal — a disaster drama and adventure thriller Everest. With the release date of movie approaching (worldwide release on September 25 and South Asia premiere on September 16), Lama says he feels good because “I think this is an achievement”. In an exclusive interview with The Himalayan Times, Lama says that in the movie — based on 1996 Mt Everest disaster — he is playing “Colonel Madan KC, the rescue squad mission commander”. It is not just any other role because Lama, who believes in “strength of a role” accepts only those roles that are memorable “even though it is a small one”. So, he has not jumped into the role just because it is a Hollywood film. Rather you will see him “playing a real time hero Col KC. He is in shadow in Nepal but is regarded as an icon in Europe and America. To be able to play his part, as the rank of colonel and fly the helicopter with the insignia of Nepal Army, you can’t ask for more,” says the Senior Captain of Nepal Airlines. Born in 1964, Lama did his first movie Aadarsha Naari when he was 17, playing the role of a pilot. Three decades later, he plays pilot again and he terms his role “as fantastic. I basically close the movie”. Everest’s  real deal Acting is his accidental career, says Lama as before doing Aadarsha Naari, he was a fitness trainer in Germany. When something happened to its lead actor, he was asked to audition for the movie (a production/direction of his father) and Lama was selected. He had always dreamt of doing a Hollywood movie and with Baltasar Kormákur directed Everest, his dream has come true. While living his dream on the Everest set, Lama also got to see how Hollywood movies are made. From shooting in “Pinewood Studios (where James Bond movies were shot)” to working with names like Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Brolin, he had a unique filming experience, not-so-familiar on the Nepali movie sets. “I found professionalism, we don’t have it,” says Lama who got “the same treatment like other stars — I got to stay in the same hotel where Gyllenhaal stayed”. Together with being an actor and a senior captain, he is a singer-composer (who has already released three albums and composed Mujhe Teri Aankho Ki  for Bollywood movie Paathshala) and a TV presenter. With so many achievements under his belt, Lama confesses he had some ego and a sense of pride. But that dropped to “zero with Everest”. He shares, “I got intimidated in the beginning. I had never seen so many people in a cast working together silently and professionally. It was so organised.” Nonetheless, as an artiste, he feels, all are the same. “It is just that we Nepalis haven’t got much exposure, we are no less than anyone else.” Having said that, he feels there is a need for a lot of “dedication, devotion and discipline” to succeed. Flying too was his dream and he has been doing it for the last 31 years.  He has balanced these two careers well — “when I am in shooting, I forget I am a pilot, and when I am flying, I forget everythingelse and just fly”. Probably this passion for both acting and flying landed him in the role of Col Madan KC. The Everest team was looking for someone who could act and was familiar with the cockpit. “As such somebody mentioned my name”. It was the end of 2013 when he met director Kormákur and others here and they told him, ‘You are the real deal’.  Later they sent him a message saying he was in their movie. So, what can we look forward to in this movie? “Disaster apart, the heroism shown by Nepalis — Sherpas and chopper pilots of Nepal Army — is commendable. It means we can do anything if we want, the movie teaches that”. Beyond Everest After his first movie, this man with six pack abs, continued to work in films, while playing tennis. However, he disliked the politicisation of sports and stopped playing tennis after 1989. He was pursuing his dream of flying then.   “I wanted to do something in life and it would have been unwise to hold on to a career without future,” he answers of not making acting his main career. “Even today there is no career in Nepali cinema. You become a superstar, and then what? Not everybody is Rajesh Hamal. He could only do because he comes from a good family — he had enough background to support him — his education, his father, mother and family.” Nonetheless, Lama has continued his passion for acting —  “I love being an actor as acting is a passion for me, not a profession. It gives me an opportunity to become what I am not in real life”. And Lama has worked in diverse roles in films like Chokho Maya and Ranko to recent Sadang and School (English movie), among others. While preparing for the release of Everest, Lama currently is also “fighting for the benefit of Nepal Airlines. We want to make it a good airlines. Airbus is a new fleet — we want to bring back the confidence of passengers. For that we, even in Nepal Airlines, should be disciplined and work hard as a team”. Trivia • Among acting, flying, music and playing tennis, he regards music as the most important because it is done during both happiness and sadness. • Had there been a better environment like today, he would have been a chef. He makes delicious spaghetti, daal bhat tarkari, chicken but Lama vouches for his omelette as the best. • He says Nepali films have become much better in terms of technicality and the new generation is talented — actors Aryan Sigdel, Karma, Priyanka Karki, Namrata Shrestha along with directors late Alok Nembang, Suraj Sunuwar, et cetera. However, he feels a need to increase the films’ budget while raising actors’ and technicians’ pay. • He is the biggest fan of actor Saugat Malla — “he is a hardcore actor and is so intense. I want to work more with him”. • He became No 1 Nepal junior in tennis. And he has memories of playing with Bollywood actor Aamir Khan. • Whenever he would go for a movie shoot, people would say the ‘pilot’ has come, and while flying, people would say the ‘hero’ has come. • He has worked in Most Extreme Airports of the World (Fox History Channel) and Extreme Airports (National Geographic). • Lama says he was originally offered the lead role (played by Keanu Reeves) in Little Buddha, but later the plan changed and he was asked to do some other role. Lama refused. • Two high altitude Nepali Sherpas — Pemba Sherpa and Aang Phula Sherpa — have also worked in the Everest. He remembers, “Josh Brolin was really good ; Jason Clarke was okay; Martin Henderson was really good — we used to hang out in Italy.” • He claims top have broken the trend — doing the role of anti-hero in Zindagani after being a hero and acting in music video, which nobody had done then.