'Kill' director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat: ‘There is so much latent anger and angst in me’

A still from Kill

The night before our chat, director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat had dropped by at an Andheri multiplex to see the audience's reaction to Kill. "The oohs, aahs, clapping and cheering - there is nothing better than that," he smiles.

Kill is unlike any Bollywood movie we've seen so far. Set almost entirely inside a train, the Lakshya and Raghav Juyal-starrer is unabashedly violent. Its biggest feat is that it's among the few Indian films to get a Hollywood adaptation, when the reverse is the norm - John Wick director Chad Stahelski is set to produce the remake for Lionsgate. For this, Bhat credits producers Karan Johar and Guneet Monga Kapoor, who showed faith in the material. "They didn't stop at making the film; they distributed and released it in Latin America and Japan. They got Lionsgate on board. People [draw parallels with] a John Wick or The Raid, but that's because there is a lack of reference point from India. John Wick producers remaking this, is a huge thing for Indian films. I will meet them in Los Angeles soon. They said it's a unique film because they felt for the antagonist as much as for the protagonist. The action and all is great, but the film emotionally gripped them."

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

While the action fare was inspired by a burglary Bhat had witnessed on a train from Patna to Pune in the mid-90s, he is eager to see how the Hollywood adaptation will be anchored. "In 2021, there were 699 thefts and robberies attempted in Indian trains. They will have to adapt it to a local story from their culture."

Kill is touted as Hindi cinema's most brutal film. That makes us wonder what led Bhat to make such a gory movie. "There is so much latent anger and angst in me. I left advertising to pursue filmmaking. In 2008, I made a film [Saluun] that didn't release. For eight years, I was struggling to make another movie; I got my next in 2016. In 2015, I remember taking the longest bath of my life. For an hour-and-a-half, I was standing in the shower, thinking of everyone who has gone ahead of me - my friends, cousins, and colleagues. I decided to not waste my time; it's with that angst that I wrote this film. Fani [Juyal's character] came to me before Amrit [Lakshya's character] did. I was channelling my angst in the story."