Rahul Bose entertains as female newsreader

Actor Rahul Bose, who entertained audiences at a rugby event here by posing as a female newsreader, hopes that was the first and last time he went "truly overboard".

"It was the first and hopefully last occasion when I've gone truly and really overboard. It was at the Rugger Revue that takes place every two years. It's a fund-raising event for us rugby players done on a very large scale at the Mumbai Gymkhana," Rahul told IANS.

"All of us have to performs skits, gags, tell jokes... whatever. I was the only professional actor among us rugby players and had no ethical issues about hamming it up to the hilt," he said.

Rahul played a female newsreader, an infant, an over-the-top lecherous Bengali and a caricature of a Tamilian on Saturday.

"Saying my performances were over the top is putting it very mildly. The one word that you've to leave at the door when you walk in for the Rugger Revue is subtlety. There were basically a lot of Gymkhana members getting together to raise money by going on stage at the risk of making fools of themselves," he said.

Was it hard for Rahul to be unsubtle?

"Not too many people know this, but when I came to Mumbai in 1989, my very first performance was on stage in a play called 'Topsy Turvy'. I played six different roles in it and every role was over the top."

Perhaps the only actor in the world who plays rugby on a national level, Rahul confirmed, "To be on the national rugby team and act? I'd definitely be one of my kind".