It’s a bit of a  Bollywood masala mix. A heady cocktail of films and fitness. With ageing Sylvester Stallone, the main ingredient, adding all the spice at the ripe old age of 71. There’s nobody in the Hindi film industry into fitness who has not at some point in their career been inspired by Stallone. From hulks in their late 50s like Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol and Suniel Shetty. To action stars in their early 50s including Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan. And even those in their 40s like John Abraham, Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgn. Now the latest to get onto the Stallone bandwagon is 28-year-old Tiger Shroff.

Of them all, only Akshay had the opportunity to briefly work with Stallone in Sajid Nadiadwala’s 2009 romantic comedy Kambakkht Ishq. While Kareena Kapoor, his lovely co-star, got to be saved in an action sequence involving the Hollywood fighting superstar and even pecked Stallone on the cheek gratefully, it was Akshay who shared the stage with the American legend in a Stunts Awards show sequence from Kambakkht Ishq and sought Stallone’s blessings for his career as a stuntman in the film by touching the senior actor’s feet Indian style. That was the only time that Stallone worked in a Bollywood film. Though industry wallahs have since been dropping hints of him coming to work in future Hindi action films and visiting the sets of Indian TV reality shows.

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Yesterday, Stallone (who is Salman’s Twitter friend) tweeted in favour of the “very talented actor Salman Khan for his next film Race 3” and wrongly used the film’s poster featuring Bobby Deol. Indian fans of Salman trolled the Rocky and Rambo actor mercilessly for this goof-up

Recommended Read: Whoopsie, Sylvester Stallone shared Bobby’s pic and called him Salman!

At the same time Tiger Shroff’s recent poster and trailer for his March 30 action film Baaghi 2, another Sajid Nadiadwala release, got much flak for trying to look too Ramboesque – although this film has been inspired by the Telugu hit Kshanam and is not the official remake of Rambo that Siddharth Anand announced at Cannes in 2017 starring Tiger as John Rambo. Stallone himself is reported to have given Anand’s Indian redo of First Blood, the start of the Rambo franchise, his blessings. But the film has not taken off.

Meanwhile, the real big fan and silent follower of the iconic American superstar behind the Rocky and Rambo franchises is John Abraham. The Rocky Handsome actor (he named this film after Stallone’s legendary fiction boxing hero) admits publicly that Stallone is his biggest inspiration and he watches all the Rocky films over and again when he is down and out. John has said in interviews, “I got into fitness when I saw Rocky IV in 1985. I was in Jaihind College of Mumbai, a scrawny, gangly and pimply youth, totally mesmerized by the training montage of Stallone running in slow motion uphill in the snow. The film was USA versus Russia in the boxing ring. Stallone against Dolph Lundgren. And I was like, my God, how can these guys look so awesome! When the film got over, I ran out and had 12 bananas straight off the cart on the road. I was so naïve then that this was my idea of becoming big, getting strong and putting on weight. I got into fitness because of Stallone. I’m still deeply inspired by him.” Indications are that Stallone is aware of John.

Some time ago, there was buzz about a Bollywood director wanting to base his next project on Sly's action film Rambo with John in the lead. A source from John's camp said, "When media persons asked Sylvester for his comment in Beverly Hills recently, the star apparently said he was flattered that Bollywood was planning to get inspired from his yesteryear flick. Apparently while complimenting John on his work, Sly said he thought John had an even better built than the star himself. His exact words were, 'Actually, he's built better than I ever was'."

But there’s more to John than Stallone. The actor whose next film Parmanu is on the Indian nuclear tests at Pokhran of 1998, warns his fans, “I know youngsters get influenced by actors. We aren’t the best examples of role models. Ask an actor how he leads his life. Does he drink, smoke, is he into drugs? Be inspired by his lifestyle. But work toward your own goal. Let the actor be a means to an end. But remain the hero of your own story. Stallone was an inspiration for me to get to a point. The Rocky movies are hugely motivating, the music is stirring, tracks like Eye of The Tiger rouse me in the gym to push myself harder. The Rocky movies are like a pick-me-up. There’s simplicity, honesty and beauty to Stallone’s character that I identify with. Rocky’s a great and courageous fighter, but he’s also a good human being, a God-fearing person with strong values, and a family man who loves his wife and kid. I’m inspired by Stallone to become the man I am, but I live my own lifestyle.”