FORMER bus conductor Kaleem Janjua is on the road to success after landing a film role opposite Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Kaleem, 63, who moved to Rochdale from Pakistan in 1965, has a role in Body of Lies, a film about a CIA operative played by DiCaprio who is sent to Jordan to find a high-ranking terrorist.

The grandfather, who has appeared in Casualty, The Bill, Dinnerladies and starred as Soresh Parekh, the father of shopgirl Sunita in Coronation Street, spent five days in Morocco filming his role for the Ridley Scott movie.

And he has revealed how he landed the part after Ridley took a shine to him and despite him not speaking Arabic.

He said: "The film is about the conflict in Iraq. It is a cameo part in the film, but it is very important.

"For the part I had to speak Arabic. I am not an Arabic speaker and they could have employed someone who did. But Ridley Scott saw my audition tape and he liked my face."

Awsome

He described working with Leonardo DiCaprio as `awesome' and admitted: "I was like a rabbit caught in the headlights."

Kaleem is moving to a new home in Norden to be nearer to his daughter, Saira, and his young grandchildren Luca and Talia, who live in Bamford.

He came to Rochdale from Pakistan shortly before his 21st birthday and his first job was as a labourer at Turner Brothers. In January 1966 he moved to Manchester, where he got a job as a bus conductor.

In 1982, Kaleem, who has also appeared in the Luc Besson movie The Fifth Element and the comedy East Is East, left Manchester to pursue his dream of becoming an actor and his big break arrived in 1983 when he starred in the ITV show The Jewel in the Crown. H is currently starring as Mani Ray on the BBC Asian Network drama Silver Street.

Body of Lies opens in cinemas in October.

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