The violent and visceral Kill, which is deeply rooted in an emotional story and pulls no punches literally and figuratively, has released to unanimously positive reviews. t2 chatted with director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat on the genesis and journey of his film, that stars young actors Lakshya, Tanya Maniktala and Raghav Juyal in the lead.

Kill premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and since then, it has been praised unanimously at every screening. What, for you, has been the highlight of this journey so far?

While I was writing the story and when I was making the film, I was cognisant of the fact that I did not want to make just any other action film. I wanted to make an emotional action film. The story is such that it strikes a chord, it involves many relationships and shows how these relationships are tested.

When the film opened at Toronto, at Fantastic Fest (in Austin, Texas) and Beyond Fest (at Los Angeles), what people have liked the most is its emotional quotient. Many have come to me and said: ‘It is like a Dharma (Productions) film, it is a real tearjerker in certain places.’

Also, the film is set in a very small region in India and it is travelling to the farthest of places. It has released in Australia, Japan, Latin America, Saudi Arabia and, of course, in the US, Canada and UK. It is being able to travel everywhere just because it is an emotionally rooted story.

And yet Kill has been labelled as Indian cinema’s ‘most violent film ever’. How do you react to that?

That Kill is being called the most violent film coming out of India was actually a line in an early international review. We didn’t market it that way. That line was somehow picked up. Of course, I cannot deny that it is the most violent and the goriest Indian film ever made. I have not seen a more violent and gory film! Having said that, as I mentioned, it is not just that. There are so many other things in the film.

How did you get Karan Johar and Guneet Monga Kapoor — who are known to have very different sensibilities from each other as filmmakers and producers — to collaborate on Kill?

Guneet and I have been friends for the last 12-14 years and I had written the story of Kill back in 2016. My friend Aliya Curmally, who works with Guneet and later became an associate producer on Kill, knew about this story. When I had written it in 2016, I thought it was too violent and that nobody would back this kind of film. Honestly, I had even forgotten that I had this story with me until Aliya reminded me about it one day.

She said that she was speaking to Guneet and happened to mention this script of mine. I told her even then that it was a very difficult film to make and this kind of an action film had never been made in India.

I had written a two-page story and I spoke to Guneet and told her that is very raw and visceral... very gritty and not for the faint-hearted. I said it was an extreme action film and I did not want to make it any other way. She told me: ‘Okay, it is difficult but let’s make it.’ That is how it began.

This was in December 2019 and then I wrote the full script. Then, Guneet and I went to meet Karan. Karan normally reads the scripts pitched to him, but this is the kind of script that I wanted to narrate. I told him that it has extremely detailed action and because I had written down each and every note of action in great detail, I wanted to narrate it to him. I started narrating the script and by the time I reached the midpoint he stopped me and said: ‘I am doing the film.’ Both Guneet and I were so surprised that we actually had to ask him to repeat it! (Laughs) He said: ‘Let’s make this.’

For Karan and Apoorva (Mehta, CEO of Dharma Productions) to put in that kind of a trust in my story and in someone like me who had never done an action film before, spoke volumes.

Your last film Apoorva was a survival story which also had quite a bit of visceral violence. Can one look at Kill and Apoorva as companion pieces in any way?

I wrote Apoorva in 2009. It took 14 years to make it. Apoorva and Kill are very different films. Apoorva (starring Tara Sutaria as the titular character), as you said, is a survival film. Kill is not... in fact, it dips towards a different end of the horizon.

What spurred the interest in making an extreme action film?

In 1994-95, I was a student in Pune and I would travel to my hometown Patna frequently by train. On one such trip, the train I was on was robbed by 25-30 people. It didn’t happen in my coach but when I woke up in the morning, my memory is vivid of seeing passengers nursing their wounds after being beaten up during the robbery. I got to hear so many horror stories because the robbery went on for four-five hours during the night. While the robbery was on, they had disconnected the emergency brakes. So, for the passengers, it was an extremely traumatising experience. I saw the fear on their faces, it must have scarred them for life. That event remained with me for a very long time and Kill stems from that personal experience.

Also, while growing up in Patna, I would bunk school and watch a lot of action films. Only English films would be shown in the 10am to noon slot and I ended up watching so many of them — mostly martial arts films and Arnold Schwarzenegger films — over a period of six-seven years. The interest to make a film in the action genre perhaps came from there.

Did you always want to name it Kill?

No, it was named something else... there was a working title. But when Karan saw the film, he said that we should name the film Kill because it is all about that! (Laughs)

What made you opt for a newcomer like Lakshya as your leading man? Also, very few could have thought of a dancer and comic actor like Raghav Juyal as the antagonist...

Lakshya trained extensively for this part. And it was not any ordinary training — he trained in an open arena, on a mock set, on a cardboard set and then he trained on a real set. He trained so extensively that many times while shooting the action, he would advise his fellow actors on how to save themselves, how to show the impact, how to fight... That is because he trained intensely for eight months. And that just didn’t involve the physical side of it...

I don’t like doing a lot of prep because I feel the performance which comes very naturally and instantaneously is the one which is best. I would sit for hours with my actors — and that involved Tanya (Maniktala) and Raghav as well — and not discuss work but our personal lives. We would talk and find the common factor between Lakshya and his character Amrit, between Raghav and Fani, between Tanya and Tulika.... Once we did that, it became easy to build the characters and connect. They are fabulous actors and have put so much effort into the film. This has been a dream team.

A Hollywood remake of Kill has already been announced with John Wick director Chad Stahelski putting his weight behind it. That must be very, very special for you. How involved will you be in that project?

It is very special. It has just been announced so I will have to figure out what my involvement will be and what kind of a role I will be required to play in the making of that film.

What is next for you?

I don’t shy away from saying that I have tasted blood with Kill. I feel there is a huge scope for Indian stories to travel across the world, and that is what I want to do. I want to tell stories which are rooted in Indian mythology and folklore and take them to the world.