Angtemba Sherpa: From mountains to Movie Set

The search for the lead actor to play Tenzing Norgay, a movie being produced by former US President Barack Obama still continues. The lead role of the Obama produced film was recently auditioned for by Nepali Angtemba Sherpa. Although bearing an uncanny resemblance to one of Nepal’s most legendary climbers, Angtemba was denied the role due to her age. Almost 60 years old, Angtemba remains determined that he is the one for the role, however he is open to take up new roles.

39 years old when Tenzing Norgay first conquered the impossible by being the first man to set foot on the summit, Angtemba would’ve been primed for the role had a movie been made immediately after the summit as the casting team supposedly is looking for an actor in his late 25s to early 40’s.

Having worked previously on documentaries like “The Sunrise”, “Guest is God” and Nepali movies such as “Euta Yesto Prem Kahani”, “Prem Geet 3” Angtemba has been around in the acting sphere for a while now. Born in Solukhumbu, a young Angtemba initially started off working as a porter for mountaineers in the region but soon made a name for himself as an international model. In 1998, he became a Swiss Watch model, later branching out to modeling for helicopters and mountaineering gear companies.

A pioneer in his own right, in 1985 with the help of a few Russian and Czech friends, he invented “Power Paragliding”, a modern take on Paragliding that involves attaching a motor to the backpack of the paraglider making it a mini aircraft/glider akin to the flight of a bird.

In the year 1995 he also became the first person to begin commercial paragliding in the city of Pokhara. An active paragliding pilot himself, he has paraglided in France and Switzerland and is also actively involved in training and producing the new batch of paragliding pilots in Nepal.

An avid mountaineer he has climbed Mt Dhaulagiri, Mt Manasalu and many more mountains all across the world. Along with mountaineering he has also contributed to research and material for internationally acclaimed books, “Step by Step”, “Trekking adventures in Nepal” being some of them.

Even at the age of 60, Angtemba today is set to participate in an international Taekwondo Competition representing Nepal.