Kill director Nikhil Bhat reacts to John Wick comparisons, says Lakshya-starrer has 'goriest action ever' | Exclusive

Over the years, Karan Johar has established an image of creating films for the urban Gen Z. Romance and drama has been his specialty. So to hear that the most violet, goriest film made in Bollywood is being presented by him comes as somewhat of a surprise. Kill, starring Lakshya, has made waves across festivals worldwide and is now finally set to release in India. Ahead of the release, the film’s director Nikhil Bhat speaks with DNA about the film, its extreme violence, and comparisons with John Wick.

Bhat says that while Kill is being marketed for its relentless violence and extreme gore, there is softer side to it that deals with human emotions. “Honestly, Kill is a very emotional story as well. It's a story about a lot of relationships, and about how these relationships are tested in this strange journey. Within a matter of two to three hours everything changes for all these people. The violence and the gore is by-product of all strains on these relationships,” says the director. He adds a note as clarification, “Kill for me, has definitely the goriest action never. But having said that, actually the emotion and the action is very well balanced.”

Kill stars Lakshya as an army commando named Amrit, who gets on a train to pursue his lady love (played by Tanya Maniktala). But all goes haywire after a bunch of criminals led by Ashish Vidyarthi and Raghav Juyal enter the train. Amrit, then, must pull out all stops to prevent them from harming those he loves. Ask Bhat if Indian audience is ready for Kill’s level of violence and his response is emphatic. “Oh yes! Absolutely,” he exclaims, adding, “The Indian audience is a very enthusiastic and an aware audience. In India we are huge fans of films like John Wick, The Raid, Old Boy, SISU etc. Moreover, we have been producing action films for years. Yes, they haven’t been extreme action films but we have had our share of action films. In fact, the term Angry Young Man was coined for Mr. Bachchan because of action films at that time. And in 80s and 90s we have had a surge of action films like Ghatak, Ghayal, Tezaab, Arjun and many more. Furthermore, filmmakers from South have been exploring this genre for years. And most recently Animal broke into this genre with a bang.”

He mentions John Wick and a lot of people in the West have compared the style of Kill to the Keanu Reeves-starrer. Nikhil reacts, “It’s a huge compliment to be even compared to these films as these are cult genre films. But having said that, the action in Kill is not based on martial arts like these films. On Kill, the action is very raw and visceral. It has a style of its own. Nothing like what you would have seen in any film. This much I can assure you.”

Shooting the film in a closed space like a train had its fair share of challenges. But Bhat says the biggest one was posed by his own body. “Just before the shoot started, some one and a half months before it, I suffered a slipped disc,” he tells us, “I was in excruciating pains for almost for the entire 77 days of the shoot. I was I was going through my physiotherapy and I had, in fact, a bed on the set where I could, lie down. But Kill being an action film, there were so many times that I had to show the action to people or where the camera would be placed. For that I would I have to bend down or lie down. It would be just painful to even get back up.”

Nikhil’s previous film Apurva was also a violent action film. But the director says the similarities end there. He explains, “Apoorva and kill both are intense films on a treatment level. I think the similarity ends there. Apurva a film where violence is not shown, it is only hinted at implied. The violence is very muted, but the impact is a lot. In Kill, on the other hand, the violence is very raw, visceral and in your face. The reason is that in Apurva, I wanted to be sensitive because it's a woman's story. In Kill, the violence is because of these strong emotions that Amrit is carrying: love, fear, pain, guilt, rage. So these primal emotions make the violence very intense and very raw.”

Kill premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023, where it was first runner-up for the People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness. It will now release theatrically worldwide on July 5.

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