While, for the rest of the world this Monday is still going to be boring and mundane, there is one guy who is probably flying high on cloud nine and dancing with joy, with no ‘blues’ to give whatsoever. The guy in question is none other than Karan Johar, whose directorial debut ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ is making the world go crazy, even after 20 years of its release. And the Berlin Film Festival only cemented the fact for us.      

© Yash Raj Films

If the Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol-Rani Mukherjee starrer taught us anything, it is the trick of using cheesy pickup lines like a pro, and getting any girl with ‘pyaar dosti hai’ logic. Seriously, didn’t we all try this line, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai *insert our crush’s name*, tum nahi samjhoge”, on people at least once?

Well, how can we forget that this is the same movie that gave us Sana Saeed. Yes, we are talking about the hottie from ‘Student Of The Year’.

The movie also gave us one of the most epic transformation stories, which happened over an unrequited love.

© Yash Raj Films

The movie also gave one of the coolest Dadis of all time and even today we feel that she possibly time-travelled from the future, because she was clearly way ahead of her time. She even sneaked out with her granddaughter for a summer camp.

The movie made us realize how life is not about ‘counting dollars’ but ‘stars’, thanks to this kid, who had just one job throughout the movie and that was to look at stars.

Lastly, the movie also predicted Salman’s future for all of us that he is going to stay single.

The movie had something or the other for everyone and no matter how old we grow; we can re-watch this movie every time it pops up on our TV screens.

© Yash Raj Films

But, we guess it isn’t just India that’s affected by the charm of this movie. Other countries too love Bollywood as much as we do, and the magic of this iconic movie was witnessed at the Berlin Film Festivals. To pay a tribute to ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra played the title track, which was welcomed by a huge round of applause by the audience.

Honestly, there couldn’t have been a better rendition than this and we can listen to it the whole day on loop. Even Karan Johar was so impressed by it that he took to Twitter to express his joy.

Was so excited and honoured to see this!!!!! #KuchKuchHotaHai https://t.co/EKsDTSMVj1

— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) 18 February 2018

It’s impressive how after so many years, the movie still manages to flutter many a hearts and make people drown in a pool of nostalgia.

Karan Johar is currently gearing up for another kickass movie ‘Ranbhoomi’ starring varun Dhawan.

Imagine how life would have been for a dead broke actor who positively rejected the idea of selling his power script, and wrote his own destiny to become a well known figure of all time. Steadily, ‘Rocky Balboa’ fixated us to his version of the American dream and filled our hearts with hope, belief and ambition. He broke the existing boilerplate about the modish version of Hollywood, instead, gave it an unfashioned, raw slant which many would have turned down then. 

On the likes of Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, ‘Balboa’ existed to be the greatest bull artist of all time! In the lines below, read about how Sylvester Stallone ignited the ‘Rocky’ in him to become a great actor and what followed years later as his charm faded away.

Early Life Without Any Money

© gigareel

Born in a lower middle class family, Stallone spent his early years in Manhattan and had a difficult childhood due to being partially paralyzed from the time of his birth. At times he couldn’t explain at first the reason behind his slurred speech and often faced rejection as a child. It was when he moved to Philadelphia and gained some university education, he started accepting the challenges both (physical and financial) all by his own. 

At one point in his early days as an adult, when he was left with no money and a shelter, he starred in a soft core pornography feature film titled ‘The Party at Kitty and Stud’s’ and earned his first 200 dollars. But, that is not all about him. He knew he had to do more with his life and tried ways to explore it through whatever available sources he had. Then ‘Hollywood’ happened to him!

Small Beginnings In Hollywood

Right from his acceptance to go for uncredited roles in films like Pigeons (1970) as a party guest, Woody Allen’s ‘Bananas’ (1971) as a subway thug, in psychological thriller ‘Klute’ (1971) as an extra dancing in a club, and in the Jack Lemmon film ‘The Prisoner of Second Avenue’ (1975) as a youth, and later doing supporting roles in ‘Farewell’, ‘My Lovely’, ‘Capone’ and ‘Death Race 2000’, Stallone tried his hands onto every small film which could keep up his survival. By then he hardly knew that something big was waiting for him in the days that followed. A self written script about a boxer changed Stallone’s fate forever.

The Script And Its Fate

On March 24, 1975, Stallone witnessed the Muhammad Ali–Chuck Wepner fight. He later sat down for 20 long hours to write a script. After finishing the script, the challenge was to find someone who could make it into a film and take Stallone in the lead. After getting rejected by many studios, it was Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff who became interested in the script and offered Stallone US$350,000 for the rights. The actor rejected the offer and instead showed interest to be casted as the lead in the film. Post much negotiation; the producers agreed to his terms, ‘Rocky’ was born!

The Academy Awards 1977

The film instantly became a huge hit and connected to masses. “If ever a recent offbeat film project had some high-horsepower sponsorship, it’s ‘Rocky’” wrote Variety about the film. The movie received both critical acclaim and a good viewership which further paved way for ten Academy nominations. The 49th Academy Awards (1977) was a memorable year for Stallone and his film, ‘Rocky’ defeated the highly lauded ‘All The President’s Men’ and took away the Oscar for Best Film, Best Director and Best Editing.

Glorious Years In Hollywood

The success of ‘Rocky’ was mammoth and made Stallone a star to be chased. Renowned producers wanted to work with him for his avant-garde performance. However, Sylvester thought unorthodoxly and gave his first directorial debut the very next year after ‘Rocky’ was released. He went on to direct the 1978 film ‘Paradise Alley’ and later starred in ‘F.I.S.T’. In 1979 he wrote, directed and starred in ‘Rocky II’ which grossed over 200 million dollars worldwide. 

When people just couldn’t get enough of his mysterious and stony image, he launched a major franchise and termed it as ‘Rambo’. After ‘First Blood’ (1982), three ‘Rambo’ sequels, ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II’ (1985), ‘Rambo III’ (1988) and ‘Rambo’ (2008), followed. Stallone’s box office success was keeping his fans happy and contented with his skills and filmography and sooner he wrote, directed, and starred in two more sequels to the series: ‘Rocky III’ (1982) and ‘Rocky IV’ (1985). These two characters of ‘Rocky’ and ‘Rambo’ have been portrayed by Stallone in a total of 11 films.

Heavy Duty Workout And Preparation For Films

© konbini

With each film, Stallone kept a robust yet different physical appearance. His exuberant training regimen often comprised of heavy duty exercises and that too for six days a week. For ‘Rocky III’, Stallone claims to have reduced his body fat percentage to as low as 2.8%. Before the shoot of ‘Rocky IV’ and ‘Rambo II’, Stallone received tough training from former Mr. Olympia, Franco Columbu.

Unsuccessful Roles

Though most of the ‘Rambo’, ‘Rocky’ films received overall positive reviews and made Stallone a star forever, he also chose to do some offbeat roles, not suiting his personality and therefore couldn’t make him appear other than the man with a basso profundo voice. People still wanted to see more of the fighter in him and just couldn’t accept the fact that he could be someone else than the one fighting inside the ring. 

Films like ‘Rhinestone’, ‘Over The Top’, ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’ and ‘Cobra’ failed at the box office and ultimately Stallone decided to rejuvenate the ‘Rocky’ franchise. ‘Rocky V’ got released, however, Stallone’s career in Hollywood started sinking, due to many flop films over a short period of time.

2006–2008: Revisiting Rocky And Rambo

 

© projectcasting

 

Who could believe that Stallone still had something to do with the ‘Rocky’ series? In 2006, he made a comeback with ‘Rocky Balboa’ which was both a commercial and critical hit. Till date, people admire him for his power packed performance in the film and for the memorable monologue during a scene where Balboa indulges into a prompt conversation with his son, leaving the viewers teary eyed and motivated at the same time. 

In 2015, Stallone reprised his role as ‘Rocky Balboa’ in a spin-off-sequel film, ‘Creed’ which earned him his first Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and also his third Academy Award nomination. Other than his Hollywood roles, he also appeared in a cameo in Bollywood movie ‘Kambakkht Ishq’.

Not many of his fans know that Stallone has also been an integral part of boxing promotion and his company ‘Tiger Eye Productions’, signed world champion boxers Sean O’Grady and Aaron Pryor. Due to extremely physically demanding roles Stallone also suffered some major injuries including a broken finger, injured neck which had to be supported through a metal plate and an injured eye. 

Stallone once said, “If you lead with your heart, lead with your heart, and it will carry you much further than your brains will.” Maybe, that has made him what he is today. An actor who believes his films are his life and so he does every single thing to make his films a great piece of art. From rags to riches, Stallone wrote his own life story and is an inspiration to millions of people throughout the world. There is never going to be another one like him!

Horror as a genre has always intrigued us enough to give us some great cinematic experience. Horror movies are bringing about some great show and tell of different experimental ideas, better visual and sound effects and characters you cannot forget easily, unfortunately. It’s quickly becoming the highest grossing story-telling genre and we’re loving the enthusiasm with which Hollywood is releasing more and more horror every year.

Just last year, 29 horror movies were released, some of them being aptly successful, while some couldn’t make their way to India. This year too, the list of horror movies Hollywood is releasing is quite fascinating and we can’t wait to watch them all, as and when they release.

For now, we’ve picked 10 of our favourite horror movies coming out this year, which should definitely be caught at cinema halls or through the interweb.

The Nun

© Warner Bros. Pictures

Remember 2016’s ‘Conjuring 2’? Well, we’re sure you remember the demonic nun that haunted the Hodgson family in London? Well, she’s back in her own horror movie to scare the bejesus out of you. The movie is a take on the origin of the evil nun and we guarantee you’ll be sitting at the edge of your seat.

Release date: July 13, 2018

Watch the trailer here.

Hereditary

© A24

The film was very well received at the Sundance Film festival a few months ago and was termed as ‘one of the scariest movies to be screened ever’. The movie revolves around the passing away of the matriarch of the Graham family, after which the daughter of the family begins to unravel cryptic and terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the chaotic it gets. Definitely catch this one.

Release Date: June 08, 2018

Watch the trailer here.

Mama 2

© Universal Pictures

‘Mama 2’ is a sequel to the 2013 Spanish horror release ‘Mama’, which was about two young girls who were abandoned in the forest cabin and fostered by an unknown entity they fondly call Mama. The plot for the second part is still unknown but it’s clearly the most awaited movie of the year.

The release date is not out yet. You can watch the trailer for the first part here. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Am7i7uM9r0)

 Annihilation

© YouTube

The story revolves around a group of troops who enter a disaster zone and only one survives out of the lot. When Natalie Portman’s husband doesn’t come back alive she enters the zone to figure out what happened to him. It’s an all in all action packed science fiction horror with a super cast to watch out for.

Release Date: 22 February, 2018. (Only in U.S. and Brazil)

Watch the trailer here.

The Predator

© 20th Century Fox

Remember Arnold’s ‘Predator’ from back in 1987? Well, it’s being remade and it’s here to give us more creeps than the one before. Obviously nothing beats watching Arnold in action. The plot is similar to the first release where a group of soldiers find themselves stranded in a jungle with the ‘Predator’ hunting them one by one. Watch out for this one because it’s going to be a real treat.

Release Date:14 September, 2018

Trailer unavailable.

A Quiet Place

© Paramount Pictures

Interestingly enough the film has a twisted plot. Mysterious supernatural forces, attracted to sound have surfaced all over the world and a family tries its best to live in a quiet secluded farm away from any noise whatsoever. Dare they make a sound!

Release Date: 9 March, 2018

Watch the trailer here. 

Slender Man

© Screen Gems

‘Slender Man’ is believed to be a popular and an old legend and the movie revolves around four teenagers who try to break the myth by bringing him to life. Of course, they summon evil instead and that’s where it gets nerve wrecking.

Release Date: 24 August, 2018 (U.S.)

Watch the trailer here.

Halloween

© Universal Pictures

Remember the creepy Micheal Myers? Well he’s back! One of the few slasher films coming out this year, ‘Halloween’ is the eleventh instalment in the Halloween franchise, picking up 40 years after the events of the previous film. This will be one gut-wrenching watch for sure.

Release Date: 19 October

Watch the trailer here.

Nightmare Return To Elm Street

© YouTube

Freddy Krueger is back and not with a sequel this time but a remake of the classic horror movie which released back in 1984. The story revolves around Drew’s daughter who is suffering from nightmares with Freddy in them. Drew has to go back in time to face his horrific memories with his fellow classmates of the Elm Street haunting in order to save his daughters life.

Release Date: 27 November, 2018

Watch the trailer here. 

Truth Or Dare

© Universal Pictures

A group of students rent a house on Halloween which is supposedly haunted by a vengeful spirit  who lost a deadly game of truth or dare several years prior. The group gets lured into performing acts of dare which are violent in nature and if they fail to do so, they’re eventually haunted and killed by the evil spirit. The trailer surely sent chills down our spines.

Release Date: 8 October, 2017

Watch the trailer here.

So, find your perfect horror movie buddy and shortlist the ones you want to watch because we can assure you, you’re gonna be in for one hell of a ride this year.