Indian Rambo: Tiger Shroff Steps Into Sylvester Stallone’s Role in Bollywood Remake

One of the most badass characters in movie history is about to go global: Rambo is heading to Bollywood.

Taking the lead in the new film will be actor Tiger Shroff, a martial arts expert who’s previously helped ripped star Aamir Khan train for his action movies. Shroff has previously starred in the superhero film A Flying Jatt and the martial arts film Baaghi, so he’s no stranger to action and getting into some battles on screen.

Sylvester Stallone, the original star of the series, won’t be appearing in the remake, but he gave the production his blessing: “I wish them well on their own,” Stallone told Deadline through a spokesperson.

For Shroff, getting a role that Stallone made famous was a dream come true. The actor wrote on Instagram after the news was first announced that he “grew up on this character” and was “humbled and blessed to step into his shoes years later.”

In keeping with the original story, the remake “will follow the last surviving member of an elite covert unit of the Indian Armed forces who returns home to discover a war waging in his own land. Forced into the dangerous jungles and frozen mountains of the Himalayas, he unleashes mayhem and destruction, becoming the unstoppable machine he was trained to be,” according to IndieWire.

Rambo, directed by Siddharth Anand, will start shooting in February 2018 for a release later that year.

Here’s a look at the new Rambo.

As iconic as Rambo is, Shroff says he’ll try to give the character a fresh start.

“[They] made that character unique and so when [I] portray Rambo [I don’t] want to take anything away from that. But at the same time, [they] want to give [their] own take. They don’t want to mimic it,” Shroff told the Hindustan Times.

Tiger Shroff started his film career with Heropanti, a 2014 action film that became a box-office hit in India, making over $11 million on a $3 million budget.

Tiger Shroff had a part in Spider-Man: Homecoming—sort of. The actor dubbed the Hindi version of the film, portraying the voice of Tom Holland’s superhero.

“It is like my childhood dream come true because I have been a big fan of many superheroes, especially Spider-Man. This is actually my half dream come true, I really want to be Spider-Man one day, this is one step closer,” Shroff told The Indian Express.

Tiger Shroff worked with Bollywood star Aamir Khan (who made an amazing transformation for Dangal) as Khan trained for his film Dhoom 3, where he played a gym instructor. “We did some functional and core-related workouts. They were basically exercises that engage and recruit your abdominal muscles,” Shroff told the Times of India.

Tiger Shroff is one of the most shredded actors in Bollywood—just look at those abs.

See the post and more at Shroff’s Instagram profile page.

Tiger Shroff starred in the 2016 martial arts film Baaghi, which made over $19 million worldwide on a budget of just $5.4 million.

Tiger Shroff played an ordinary man who became a superhero in the 2016 film A Flying Jatt.

Both of Tiger Shroff’s parents, Jackie Shroff and Ayesha Shroff, were in the film business in India. Both were actors, while his mother was also a model and producer.

Tiger Shroff was born on March 2, 1990.

Tiger Shroff is working on a sequel to the martial arts film Baaghi, titled Baaghi 2, which will be released in 2018.

Tiger Shroff starred as the lead in the 2017 Indian action-dance film Munna Michael.

The new Rambo remake starring Tiger Shroff will follow “the last surviving member of an elite covert unit of the Indian Armed forces who returns home to discover a war waging in his own land. Forced into the dangerous jungles and frozen mountains of the Himalayas, he unleashes mayhem and destruction, becoming the unstoppable machine he was trained to be.”