John Rambo, the troubled Vietnam veteran whose quests for revenge notched up some of the highest body counts in cinematic history, appears to have brushed up on his Hindi — and possibly his dance moves.

Sylvester Stallone, the Hollywood star who played the lead in four ultra-violent Rambo films, is to make his Bollywood debut this summer. He will again play John Rambo, this time in an Indian production.

Do not expect a rerun of the bloody antics of past Rambo outings. Stallone’s project, Kambakht Ishq (Incredible Love), is a romantic comedy that the producers claim is the first Bollywood movie to feature A-list Hollywood actors in proper roles.

In his new incarnation Rambo is a successful Hollywood actor, not a misunderstood killing machine. The plot centres on his stuntman double who falls in love with a supermodel. The leads are played by Akshay Kumar and Karina Kapoor, two of India’s biggest stars. The film also features the former Bond girl Denise Richards and Brendon Routh, who played the latest incarnation of Superman. The producers will not reveal the details but a slushy song-and-dance routine seems inevitable.

Times Archive, 1982: Review: First Blood

The film is a celebration of violence, practically from the first scene and certainly to the last

• Rambo: First Blood Part II, 1985

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Stallone’s foray into Bollywood comes as the world’s most prolific film industry scrambles to draw a line under a string of loss-making films. The dire performance of most big- budget Hindi-language movies this year has stoked fears that the appeal of Bollywood’s kitsch is waning. Sinking box-office figures are one factor behind a strike by producers, who are refusing to release new titles. The producers are demanding a greater share of profits from the cinema owners.

Indian film-makers, hoping to tap new markets with more avant-garde offerings, are collaborating with some of the West’s most fêted talents. The Hollywood screenwriter Paul Schrader, whose credits include Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, is working with Anubhav Sinha, an Indian producer, for his next project, Xtrme City. It will tell the story of a hapless American who gets sucked into the Mumbai underworld. Sinha has said that he intends to cast both Hollywood and Bollywood stars in leading roles.

For their part, the makers of Kambakht Ishq, which is set in Los Angeles, have promised that Stallone plays more than a cameo role. The trailer shows the Hollywood veteran uprooting a parking meter, which he uses as a weapon in a fight scene before delivering a payoff line in Hindi.

Even so, it appears unlikely to smash the Bollywood mould. The trailer — “he is the world’s leading stuntman . . . she is the world’s leading supermodel” — sounds suspiciously traditional.

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