At the peak of his career as a Bollywood actor, Rahul Bose would leave film sets with a face full of make-up and head straight to rugby training.
He starred in more than 50 movies, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Scarlett Johansson, walking the red carpet at film festivals around the world.
Adored by millions, he lived a gilded life, yet something always drew him back to India’s dry and dusty rugby pitches that left his knees grazed and nose broken.
‘People ask which part of your brain you use for both rugby and film,’ says Bose, sitting in a tribune at the Hong Kong Sevens tournament, reliving his days as a winger for the Indian national team.
‘There’s nothing in common. Nothing. On a film set, it is all about you. You raise your hand one way and someone brings you hot water. You raise your hand another way and someone brings you cold water. If you look one way, someone brings you a chair.
‘When you walk across the white line of the rugby pitch, you lose your name. For two weeks, I would lose my name. “India No 14, come here, don’t do that again”. Your team-mates don’t give a toss about your background and I love that.’
Bollywood actor Rahul Bose with Mail Sport’s Nik Simon at the Hong Kong Sevens tournament
Bose has grand plans to attempt to take rugby to India’s masses through a new sevens event
Bose represented India between 1998 and 2009. He juggled sport with his screen career, earning plaudits from TIME magazine for being ‘the superstar of Indian arthouse cinema’.
‘I would look at the rugby calendar and see when the international tournaments are being played,’ he explains. ‘If it’s in March, then February is the camp and April I’m in hospital. I would block out those months from my calendar and schedule my movies around it.
‘I had to postpone two films because I broke my nose. I broke my nose four times. They told me: “Your contract says you can’t play rugby” so I told them I fell down the stairs… then they saw the newspaper!
‘For years, I would be getting ready for a match, two hours before a game, everyone beating their chest, and I would be there with moisturiser, taking off my make-up.
‘My team-mates would be there taping up saying: “What the fuck are you doing?” It was funny. Compared to my greatest moment in cinema – the film festivals, the awards – there is no contest against crossing that white line for your country.’
Over the course of last weekend in Hong Kong, Bose met with World Rugby officials to finalise details of a new Indian Sevens league that will launch on Friday. Bose is now President of Rugby India and has been finalising contracts on a summer series akin to cricket’s Indian Premier League.
It is set to pull in some of the world’s mainstream Sevens specialists, helping to develop local Indian talent, with steady growth targets over the next decade. India overtook China in 2023 as the world’s most populous country and Bose is keen to corner a share of the market.
‘Is there a lot of potential in the Indian sports market for rugby? Massive,’ he says. ‘We have a population of 1.5billion and rugby is played in 322 out of 760 districts. If we capture a fraction of that, one percent, that’s 15million.
Bose has recently finalised details of an Indian Sevens league that is due to launch on Friday
Bose wants to get India into the Olympics, where Sevens had a huge audience last year in Paris
‘When I used to play, rugby in India was an upper-class sport played by two schools and 12 clubs. I played because the girls in our school loved blood. There was some wounded-hero psychology thing happening.
‘Now our sport is played by the poorest of the poor. Today there are more than 1,200 clubs. Urban India stopped playing rugby because of table tennis, golf and chess. We had guys like Leander Paes who were winning and people want to see winners.
‘Our federation said, “Let’s get out of the cities and play rugby in the hinterland”. A tribal school in Odisha started playing rugby. The largest tribal school in the world, where 30,000 kids are clothed, live and eat.
‘A non-profit organisation went into the school and threw a rugby ball to the kids. Six months later, at a competition in London, our kids won the tournament. A film has been made about it in India called Jungle Cry.
‘If India wins, people will be talking about rugby. If the sport can help the population, people will be talking about rugby.
‘If we can get you £500 a year to play rugby, if we can get you into a good school to play rugby, if we can get you a job as a postman through playing rugby, then people will start playing because it can better their lives.
‘Our women’s rugby team are 10th in Asia and our men’s team are 15th. If we make the top four in Asia then we qualify for the Olympics. We’re working towards achieving that by 2032.’
If things go to plan, Bose may well have a ready-made script on his hands for the next instalment of his film career.
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh at the 2027 Rugby World Cup launch event earlier this year
Waugh, trying to tackle Jason Robinson, played in the 2003 World Cup final defeat by England
Waugh and order
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh scheduled meetings in the luxurious surroundings of the Regent Hotel in Victoria Harbour, as the game’s decision-makers descended on Hong Kong.
Top of Waugh’s to-do list is finding a coach to replace Joe Schmidt later this year. Former England coach Stuart Lancaster has been linked with the job but Australian Les Kiss seems to be the front-runner.
‘We’re pretty close to getting to a solution,’ said Waugh. ‘We want to make sure it’s the right cultural fit and the right capability. We don’t want to have a complete reset.’
Hong Kong dash for Webb
RFU board member Jonathan Webb wasted no time in boarding his flight to the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sevens after CEO Bill Sweeney survived his vote of no confidence.
The special general meeting was staged at Twickenham on Thursday night and Webb was in town for the action by Saturday.
Former Ireland full back Rob Kearney was leading the charge for the World Rugby delegates at the competition’s afterparty. Kearney recently joined the governing body’s board as an International Player representative.
He ensured the party continued through the night, visiting the iconic Joe Bananas bar in Wan Chai before retiring close to 5am.
Tennis superstars Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were among the VIP guests at the new Kai Tak Stadium.
Jonathan Webb (left) made a rapid dash from the RFU’s special general meeting to Hong Kong
Benetton and Argentina No 10 Tomas Albornoz is next on the list as Leicester seek a fly-half
Leicester are finding it difficult to replace Handre Pollard, who will go at the end of the season
Tigers in recruitment scramble
Argentinian No 10 Tomas Albornoz is the latest player to be sounded out in Leicester’s recruitment scramble.
The club are seeking a replacement for Handre Pollard, having already missed out on a host of candidates.
Reports of a £600,000 offer for Ireland fly-half Jack Crowley have inflated wage demands of potential signings and Albornoz, who plays for Benetton, is high on the club’s shortlist. Albornoz has 17 caps for Argentina since making his debut in 2022.
Recruitment has not been helped by the fact the club are yet to find a successor for departing coach Michael Cheika.
Courtney Lawes is one several former international stars to have been signed by Pro D2 clubs
Premier Sports hold the rights to Japan’s League One featuring South Africa icon Cheslin Kolbe
Another Premier offering
Premier Sports are hoping to add broadcast rights for France’s Pro D2 competition, the country’s second-tier rugby league, to their offerings after launching a 24/7 rugby channel.
The subscription platform recently secured the rights to Japan’s League One and the USA’s MLR competitions, alongside the Champions Cup and United Rugby Championship.
The subscription platform recently secured the rights to Japan’s League One and the USA’s MLR competitions alongside the Champions Cup and United Rugby Championship.
Pro D2 is home to a raft of stars including former England players Courtney Lawes (Brive), Jonny May (Soyaux) and Jonathan Joseph (Biarritz).
It is set to be a thrilling climax to the season with a tight race for the six play-off spots, which are used to decide which teams make their way into the bright lights of the Top14.
