If you made a list of Hollywood movies that are unlikely to be remade into a Bollywood musical extravaganza, then Rambo would surely be on it. However, the violent eighties action thriller is to be adapted into a Bollywood blockbuster, prompting incredulity from fans of the original, and a somewhat startled reaction from its star, Sylvester Stallone.
“I read recently they are remaking Rambo in India!!... Great character...hope they don’t wreck it,” wrote Stallone on his Instagram account, next to a movie still of a fierce-looking John Rambo, the troubled Vietnam veteran upon whom the franchise was based.
In a later post, the 70-year-old added “some people like to read my words and twist them” and he wished good luck to Tiger Shroff, the 27-year-old Indian action hero who will star in the Hindi revamp. “Eye of the Tiger! I am sure you will put all of your heart and soul into it. Never give up young man!” Stallone added, next to a topless shot of Shroff in his Rambo persona.
Breathless with excitement, Shroff responded: “There will always and only be ONE ‘eye of the tiger’, for us cubs you rule the jungle! Thank you so much sir!”
Fans, particularly Indians, among Stallone’s 3.3 million Instagram followers, have been a tad more cynical. “Low budget 3rd class acting and dramatic emotional scenes for no reasons,” lamented one Indian fan. “Trust me sir they will make your movie cartoon, I am an Indian and I know our directors, it will be hell of a wreck,” said another.
“Dance numbers and a happy ending, what can go wrong?” asked another sceptical Instagram user.
The Rambo franchise, a film series based on the David Morrell novel First Blood, hit the big screen back in 1982 and took more than $125 million (Dh459 million) at the box office around the world. The Hindi remake was announced last week at the Cannes Film Festival, and will be directed by Siddharth Anand, who belongs to one of Bollywood’s many movie-making dynasties.
According to the Hindustan Times, the film will portray the last surviving member of an elite covert military unit of the Indian armed forces who returns home from active service to discover a war waging in his own land. Fans of Stallone’s original will not be surprised to hear that our hero then “unleashes mayhem by becoming an unstoppable machine after tough training”.
Bollywood has faced criticism in the past for its perceived rip-off of Hollywood plots. But Rahul Puri, managing director at Mukta Arts Ltd, one of India’s leading production houses, told The Daily Telegraph that official remakes were currently big business in the Indian film capital, Mumbai, and Rambo could do very well.
“Bollywood films have never really had an issue with violence, and revenge is a theme that plays well in our films too,” he said. “If made with some interesting Indian nuances, it could be a big hit. The star of the film, Tiger Shroff, is a rising action-oriented hero, and his audience will be excited by this announcement.”
