A BRADFORD security guard has swapped his flashlight for the limelight by starring in a major Bollywood film showing at cinemas now.

Mehmood Sultan landed himself a three-minute part in the movie, called Welcome to Karachi, which was shot at various locations across the city, including City Hall and Bradford Bazaar last October.

The 63-year-old grandfather-of-four, who has also been in ITV police drama DCI Banks, has already been to see the movie twice since it was released globally on Friday.

And now he is planning a third trip with friends later this week to watch it all over again.

Mr Sultan, of Alston Close, Chellow Dene, said he was proud to be a Bradford man in a Bollywood film.

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"It was a tremendous honour to be from Bradford and to get a part in this big Bollywood film. I'm very proud to have represented the city in my small way," he said.

A number of local people were recruited for parts as extras in crowd scenes.

Mr Sultan, who plays the part of a Pakistani man in the comedy drama, also has another role lined up starring in a Pakistani film on shoot in Thailand - he flies out next month.

"I'm very happy and excited to be an actor. I'm starting to get recognised in public now. A man at work took my photo to show his wife to say I was a security guard at his work who'd been in DCI Banks, and a woman visiting a neighbour spotted me and came over to ask if she'd seen me on TV."

But for the time being he is not giving up his day job as a security guard at a factory near Holme Wood.

Other locations where filming for Welcome to Karachi took place last autumn included Little Germany, Bombay Stores and Drummonds Mill, sourced by Bradford's City of Film team.

The movie is about two Indian friends, played by Arshad Warsi and Jackky Bhagnani, who plan to go to America. In a bid to avoid the hassle of visas they attempt to travel by boat but their journey is thwarted by a storm and they end up in Karachi with no passports, money or official papers.

Things get worse when the pair is interrogated by terrorist outfits in Pakistan as well as what appears to be the CIA.

Filming also took place at quarry sites in North Yorkshire, and some of the region's famous peaks, which appear in the film as mountains in Afghanistan.

Mr Sultan, who came to England from Pakistan and has been in other films there, said: "The film came out here on Friday, I've seen it twice already and I'm going again with friends. I've seen myself in films in Pakistan before but this is the first time in the UK."