EXCLUSIVE Interview! Nikhil Nagesh Bhat on Karan Johar’s Kill: ‘It’s taken from a real…’ | Not Just Bollywood

Bollywood has never before come up with a movie like this. In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Firstpost’s Lachmi Deb Roy for ‘Not Just Bollywood’, director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat talks about the making of the film.

A path breaking Indian action film, Kill is much more than just a thriller. It talks about classism, local politics and it has an emotional touch too. Nikhil also explains as to why the film took so long to be released in India. This terrifically violent film is a must watch for many reasons. Kill is also travelling to Hollywood. Lionsgate announces remake of the action film in English language

Edited excerpts from the interview:

 I saw _Kill_ at the Red Sea Film Festival, but why did it take so long for the film to release in India?

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 When we went to Red Sea and Toronto, we had made the film for the Toronto festival. You know, that was a copy only for the festival. There was a lot of work which was remaining. The sound designer had taken only three days to finish the sound design for Toronto because we were running really short of time when we were sending the film to Toronto. Now after coming back from Toronto, I’ve taken almost three weeks to do the sound design. So our film finished with its final edits just one and a half months back.

Having said that, the kind of deal which we had with the LionsGate, there were different kinds of demands from different countries, there’s a slightly different cut in the US and again a different cut in the UK which is being released. There’s a small variation in Latin America depending on their sensibilities. So we had to do a lot of changes as per countries, and we wanted the movie to release on one date and time all across the world. And that’s the reason why this humongous amount of work needed to be finished because there is a separate copy for each and every country.

It’s an emotional film, what was it like choosing the characters and also talking about the backstory of the dacoits for that matter? 

 It’s a very emotional film, as you said. But also at the same time, there are a lot of issues, which I have tried to touch upon without preaching about them, without talking too much in detail. There’s local politics. Indian railway is supposed to be the most widely used transport method for all across the country. And it is something which everybody can afford. But this particular train, which is from Ranchi to Delhi, is a Rajdhani, which is the most premium priced train in India. Now when that happens, the people who travel by this train are affluent people. And the cost is almost like buying a flight.

There’s a different kind of gentry which travels by this train. And when you look at that class of people and when you look at these dacoits you can see a stark difference. I’ve just shown how funny Raghav Juyal’s character is. But he has a backstory too. He’s working as a gas station employee. So they come from different strata of the society. So they are people who work, who have their daily jobs, but they want to earn more and they want to get quick money. And that is the reason why they resort to such kind of robbery in the train. That is also the reason why the modus operandi for these gangs are very simple because, once they will loot, they will go back and they will disperse. Now there’s always that threat that the cops will actually reach, one or two of them. But it’s a huge family. And if the family is going, nobody is going to rack them out.

Because if there are family members, then they can trust each other. So that’s the reason why when they go out and they rob, it’s a huge family which goes and robs. That everybody is the same, everybody is a family member and are related to each other. That also builds in that kind of a trust. And that also builds in them that emotional connection with each other that they are not going to backstab each other. But at the same time, when things go south in the film and when they start falling dead, they start feeling and fearing the loss of their loved ones. And this is exactly the same feeling which they were trying to instill, this kind of a fear in the passengers and we wanted to show that insecurity and helplessness in the passengers. So it’s almost like they get trapped in their own web of fear and insecurity.

What made you come up with this idea? Any personal experience that you had gone through which made you think about this strange journey?

My home was in Patna and I used to study in Pune. And this would be, like, a 36 to 40-hour long journey. And, once around the year 1994 or 1995, I don’t remember the exact year. But I was traveling in the sleeper class. At that time, there were only 2 AC coaches. I was traveling in a sleeper coach and boarded between 11:30pm  in Patna and woke up around 7 am because that’s the time when the train used to reach. And when I woke up, I realised that it had stopped at some small desolate village. And when I looked out of the room, there were too many cops around.

And when I got out of the train, I got to know that while I was sleeping, the 2nd AC coach was getting robbed by almost 25 to 30 robbers in the night, and they robbed for almost four to five hours. They had beaten up passengers and even stabbed a couple of them. And the passengers were traumatised and they didn’t want to get back into the train. And I saw that first-hand. When I saw that, it had some impact and it remained with me for so many years. It was in 2016 that I wrote a two-page story.

Kill is going to Hollywood now. Lionsgate has announced the remake of the action film in English language. What do you have to say about that? 

 When I started making the film, I did not imagine that this was going to do so well. It’s a huge honour and privilege  I would say. And normally what happens, we take the rights of Hollywood films and try to make an Indian film. This is one of its kind where an Indian film is adapted into a Hollywood film.