The man in this video is NOT the lion king, but for a few intense, near-death moments ... he thought he was while sitting nose-to-nose with a big cat in its zoo enclosure.
This insanity went down Thursday at a zoo in Delhi, India where a 28-year-old man hopped a fence and plopped himself down inches away from a male lion that seemed totally puzzled by the guy's presence.
It's impossible to look away from the scene -- the guy stood in front of the lion, then crouched down in front of it. Simba was almost motionless for several seconds, then suddenly lunged toward the guy and it looked like ... dinner was served!
What happened next is baffling -- for some reason the lion backs down! Moments later, zoo officials fired a tranquilizer at the animal, and managed to get the man out alive.
The showdown was even closer than the one that went down in the Bronx Zoo a few weeks back when a woman who was allegedly high on something taunted a lion. At least she had a moat between her and the cat.
Not surprisingly, the dude in India was reportedly drunk and/or mentally unstable. Totally surprisingly ... he was completely unscathed by the encounter.