Paul King in awe with Hugh Grant's sex symbol tag

Director Paul King is amazed with the number of photographs actor Hugh Grant has of himself.

Grant has joined the cast of "Paddington 2" and plays a villain named Phoenix Buchanan who is self-obsessed and has hundreds of photographs of himself in his house.

"We needed a hundred pictures of Hugh. Hugh said he had a few and he came in the next day with various portraits and charcoal sketches of himself that had been given to him by fans," King said in a statement.

"Nobody has ever sent me a charcoal sketch of (himself) reclining on a couch semi-naked. But then, I'm not an international sex symbol," added the director.

On a lighter note, Grant said: "I thought everyone had head shots in their house. I may have a wallpaper too."

"Paddington", released in 2014, recreates the magic of British author Michael Bond's best-selling series of children's stories. It follows the comic misadventures of a young bear with a passion for all things British.

In "Paddington 2", the enthusiastic bear will be seen devoting himself to buying a present for his aunt Lucy's 100th birthday and tell a story on how he ends in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin are returning as the lead cast of the film. Ben Whishaw is also returning as the voice of Paddington and Imelda Staunton as aunt Lucy.

The sequel to "Paddington", being brought to India by PVR Picture, will release in the country on January 12.

--IANS

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