“Action is a by-product of emotions,” Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt on why his movie ‘Kill’ has antagonists that are not merely disposable props

Talking to Emmy-winning filmmaker Marcus Mizelle (Something in the Water: A Kinston Basketball Story & Belle Vie) on his podcast Past Present Feature, Nikhil says that “Action is a by-product of emotions.” Speaking about his main antagonist, played by a brilliant Raghav Juyal, he doubles down on why he induced his character with a sense of humor and gave his motifs a maddening but completely believable reasoning. 

Most modern-day action movies rely so much on shock value and the number of body drops that it feels like all the bad guys surrounding the protagonist can be replaced by props. This is where Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt’s “Kill” stands out. While it also relies on relentless action that features a very angry lead going on a killing spree—like, say, John Wick and The Raid movies—it also grounds its antagonists in reality, making the conflict feel more palpable and believable. 

Kill stars Lakshya as Amrit Rathod, an NSG commando traveling on a train from Ranchi to New Delhi with his colleague  Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan). Amritt plans to flee with his lover Tulika (Tanya Maniktala), traveling on the same train with her powerful businessman father Baldev Singh (Harsh Chhaya. However, the journey takes a dark turn when the train is hijacked by a gang of thieves led by Bani (Ashish Vidyarthi) and his deranged son, Fani (Raghav Juyal).

On the Past Present Feature podcast, which focuses on contemporary filmmakers and the inspirations behind their latest feature films, the two filmmakers gush about their admiration for James Cameron’s Aliens. Nikhil insightfully notes that the film is essentially about two mothers fighting to protect their children. He also talks about Terminator and how the film inspired him to create an action movie that is quick in establishing the basic groundwork before diving directly into the action. 

Kill, Nikhil’s fifth feature film, is set almost entirely on a moving train. An important aspect of the Past Present Feature podcast is discussing what it takes to get a film off the ground. Nikhil reflects on growing up in a conservative Indian household that viewed cinema as immoral and how he would often skip school to catch early morning movie shows. This rebellious habit gradually turned him into a fan of action movies. 

With Kill, which premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, the director had quite a journey. His producer, the Oscar-winning Guneet Monga, allowed him to make an action movie that did not follow the typical over-the-top nature of action movies in India. There was a whole lot of intense and disturbing imagery that the audience on this side of the planet is not used to. I guess this is why he was so scared and nervous before his movie, which premiered in the Midnight Madness Section at TIFF. In the podcast, he mentions that he was scared shitless that everyone in the audience would hate his film and give it bad reviews, but his nervousness turned into joy when the audience started to react to the movie after the first 15 minutes of basic setup.  

As mentioned earlier, Nikhil talks about why he was so fixated on making his antagonist on par with the protagonist. While he had to cut a section of the antagonist’s arc short from the final cut of the film, he agrees that during the writing process, two things are of utmost importance to him. On the Past Present Feature podcast, he claims that “The end is very important to him” and that “Goliath is more interesting to him than David.” This reverse engineering helps him establish and ground his characters in a class divide that makes the proceedings even more intriguing. 

Available to buy digitally in the US via Lionsgate, Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt’s movie used a region-wise distribution strategy that helped it garner the kind of critical and commercial acclaim that it has received until now. It is slated to be remade in English, with Chad Stahelski of 87Eleven Entertainment on board to take it forward. 

You can listen to the complete conversation on the Past Present Feature episode ft. Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt below: