Mr. New York Lopsang Dokpatsang says he’s “Dil Se Hindustani”

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NEW YORK – Former Mr. New York, Lopsang Dokpatsang, a Tibetan American, has gone from being the first Asian to win a heavyweight championship to an action hero.

Dokpatsang’s most recent film was ‘The New York Police Officer and The Monk’, directed by Tenzin Phuljang. It was about a top cop in the city who loses interest in his life and goes soul searching to Karnataka, India where he meets a monk who keeps him going and changes his life around.

Now, he has two other films lined up for release this year, revealed Dokpatsang, in an interview to News India Times.

One of the films is a documentary titled ‘Mr. New York’ and the other one is a feature film: the first-ever Tibetan action hero film with a spiritual twist.

Dokpatsang is Tibetan by birth, has a U. S. citizenship, but was born in Darjeeling, India. He then grew up in Mussoorie and came to Los Angeles during the 1980s where he was “invited to be a bodyguard for a Hollywood star.”

He eventually made it to New York City where he started to participate in local heavyweight championship shows and was the first Asian to win a heavyweight championship titling him as Mr. New York. He also won other heavyweight championships in 1992, 1998 and 2001.

While touring for other heavyweight championships internationally, Dokpatsang landed in Mumbai where he met the actor Sanjay Dutt who said that they were looking for someone who could do an action role in a film and referred him to Feroz Khan who took his screen test and told him to work with him in the film Janasheen.

Dokpatsang then went on to do other Bollywood films, such as, Talaash with Akshay Kumar and Qayamat with Ajay Devgan. He was offered to do a negative role in Krrish 3 starring Hrithik Roshan but had to refuse it due to the birth of his son.

“Family comes first,” he said in an interview to News India Times, noting how his career sometimes gets in the way of his family life and how doing more local projects is a blessing and though he still loves doing Bollywood films, there often tends to be some scheduling conflicts when trying to do one.

Along with looking at how long a project is before he can accept it, Dokpatsang is also very picky about the roles he chooses.

“I am very well-known in my community, they look up to me”, he said, and thus, he takes his career choices responsibly and therefore has to choose his roles wisely.

Dokpatsang said that he has always had two passions in life: his championship which he said is all about “working on your inner side, bringing out the warrior in you” and his creative side, which for him is acting in films.

In order to do a film, Dokpatsang says that he has to look at the story, the script, the film director and his level of passion and most importantly the role he will be playing before deciding to take up the project. He said that even though he is a romantic, he must find a good action role mainly because of his body.

Dokpatsang went to New York University’s acting studio and has a Master’s degree in Sports Medicine from NYU.

“In New York, I am a nutritionist and master trainer, basically a fitness guru,” said Dokpatsang, explaining that he works with a bunch of people like those who are in the Alcohol Anonymous program and others who suffer from depression.

Dokpatsang believes in giving knowledge to the youth and that is why he has become a fitness guru so that he can share his knowledge of diet, nutrition and weight training with others who are in need of it.

“When you give your knowledge, you live forever,” he exclaimed.