Tennis superstar, entertainment entrepreneur, television commentator, and, most recently, the eighth UN Messenger of Peace, Los Angeles-based Vijay Amritraj, 47, is one of the enduring icons of Indian sport.

He is now quietly shoring up his presence in the subcontinent through his First Serve Entertainment, which is in the content and distribution business, encompassing movies, television programmes and the Internet. As well as looking at franchising the popular sports bar in Chennai, Vijay's. Amritraj spoke to Pritish Nandy recently.

How does it feel to be a Messenger of Peace for the United Nations? Did you anticipate the assignment?

To be honest, no. But I am delighted to have been chosen and will try to do my very best.

The fact that I am among eight people chosen from all over the world, including Michael Douglas, Luciano Pavarotti, Muhammed Ali, human rights campaigner Anna Cataldi, Enrico Macias, Elie Wiesel and Magic Johnson, rests a great responsibility on me. A responsibility I will try to live up to. It is a great honour.

But, frankly, it is not just an honour for me. It is an honour for all Indians, wherever they may be and I will certainly do my best to fulfil the expectations of me. It will be an opportunity for me to take up human problems, wherever in the world they may be, and try to focus on them.

What will you specifically do?

To start with, create greater awareness of the role of the international body and try to work towards certain specific goals.

We, the Messengers of Peace, are attached to the secretary general's office and our responsibilities are pretty broad-based. The UN has many other agencies, some 50 or 60 of them, and they have their own ambassadors as well.

But this assignment is specifically attached to the secretary general's office and, therefore, I will be at their beck and call. They can call me to work for their population fund if they want. Race relations is another area, I am told, they would like to use me for and I am interested in that as well.

But my own interest, to answer your question, is to work among children. I would like to focus on children's issues.

So why are you not an ambassador for UNICEF, the children's fund?

Because here I have many other options. I can do much more also because we are working so closely with the secretary general.

But, to start with, I would like to focus on children's issues. Orphans, handicapped children, abused children, the controversial area of child labour laws, HIV infected kids who are suffering because of no fault of theirs, children in the areas of war and conflict whose plight I would like to highlight. I have always believed that, more than education, children need love and care. That is the most important thing for them to grow and mature into sensitive adults. Frankly, I would like very much to focus on that.

What are you doing here, in downtown Bombay, on this visit?

My son Prakash is playing tennis out here. Competition tennis. The MTNL ATP Challenger. That is why I am around to cheer him on.

So it is tennis that brings you here?

Yes, tennis, Prakash and business as well, I guess.

First Serve Entertainment has been growing over the years. We are today the second largest advertising agency in Sri Lanka.

In Madras, the sports café, Vijay's, is doing very well and we are thinking of franchising it now. I have personally collected all the memorabilia for it and people are coming in droves.

The television content and syndication business is also doing well. We have not grown it as much as we could have possibly done but that is because I do not believe in taking debt. In fact, all my ventures are completely debt free. For that is one thing I very much believe in: I want to sleep well at night. That is why all my businesses are funded by me directly. I am wary of partners. I am wary of piling up debts.

How will your business grow, in that case?

I will be honest with you, it has not grown as much as it could have. But then, I am not exactly unhappy with that.

I believe the entertainment business has a great future and we will all grow critical mass very soon. It is, by far, the fastest growing business in the US today and I am absolutely confident that here, in India, it will also grow at a very fast pace in the next few years. It is just a question of being ready to ride the wave.

We have done quite a few big things over the years and I am sure that we will do many more. Movies. Television programmes. Big sporting events. Home country gateways on the net. The sports bar, we set up, in Madras. We are into quite a few things. Even advertising.

As I told you, Grey First Serve is the second biggest advertising agency out of Colombo and we have a pretty tidy list of clients. All the best multinationals are with us. So are the local companies. And we are still growing!

I am very hands off with my businesses. I set up the companies, choose the right people to run them, then sit back and watch them grow. I rarely involve myself in the day to day affairs of these companies.

In fact, I do my own thing. Playing the game, teaching, doing commentary and, now, working for the United Nations. All these are my personal interests. I do not mix them with my companies which run on their own.

It is only when things do not work out that I come in and change the people running the companies. I do not try and run the businesses myself. I think that is the key to the success of First Serve, both in the US as well as out here.

Design: Rajesh Karkera

ALSO READ:

Vijay Amritraj's top ten male tennis players of the century

The Rediff Interviews