Ruslaan Mumtaz, son of Bollywood veteran actress Anjana Mumtaz, is ready to surf new shores. British auteur director Christopher Miles, best known for his biopic The Priest Of Love on D.H. Lawrence , has cast Ruslaan to play Egyptian pharaoh King Farouk, whose colourful and controversial lifestyle made him the subject of innumerable barbs and raised eyebrows. Talking about the project, Ruslaan shared, "I had never dreamt of getting the role. After all, King Farouk was Egyptian and I'm an Indian. But the cinematographer of my first film Amitabha Singh, who's also going to be the chief assistant for Miles' pro ject, showed my pictures to the director. He was immediately struck by my physical resemblance to King Farouk. He saw my debut film Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar and made up his mind. When he flew to Mumbai to meet me this weekend, I couldn't believe it was all happening."

The film chronicles Farouk's playboy lifestyle and his relationship with a British girl, who will possibly be played by Keira Knightley.

" King Farouk died young, at the age of 45 because of his hedonistic lifestyle. The film will go back to his life between the age of 21 and 23. I'm catching up on visual and printed material on Farouk," said the actor.

Ruslaan feels the similarities between him and the pharaoh go beyond mere facial resemblance. "I must say he was quite a cool cat. He loved women and fast cars. So do I! And he'd acquire both in every shape and size. I'd love to do the same," admitted Ruslaan.

Miles wanted one final audition with Ruslaan with a moustache before clinching the deal. "The moustache is easy to grow. Now my real hard work begins. I've been given videotapes of King Farouk to study his body language and facial expressions. I must say I do resemble him quite a lot. But he was bulky, in fact, fat," he reveals.

"I've gone the other way recently and lost a lot of weight. Now I've been ordered to put on weight. So I've to start bingeing. I can't get any luckier. I get a role any Indian actor would kill for, and I get to flirt with flab," he added.

Frankly after my debut I just didn't know what to do next. I guess I've ‘Miles' to go," quips the actor, whose next Bollywood work will be in producer Anupam Kher and director Satish Kaushik's movie on teen pregnancy, Tere Sang.