How ‘Kill’ Slices Bollywood Open

The writer-director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat bristles whenever someone labels his claustrophobic action film “Kill” as Bollywood. In “Kill” (in theaters), the characters rarely break out in song and there are few colorful sets — just the mundane cars of a train on which the bulk of the movie takes place.

According to Bhat, in fact, “Kill” was inspired by a real-life train robbery he experienced in 1995. That memory is respun here into a story involving a lean commando named Amrit (Lakshya), who is working to save his girlfriend, Tulika (Tanya Maniktala), from a team of working-class bandits led by the spiteful Fani (Raghav Juyal). Amrit’s gory, swinging, kicking barrage through tight train corridors — propelled by a muscular exterior yet an emotional vulnerability — is an action extravaganza accomplished through sharp technical execution.

In a Zoom interview, Bhat spoke about crafting fight sequences in tight spaces and his love of James Cameron’s “Aliens.” Below are edited excerpts from the conversation.

How did you shape the fighting styles here?

It comes from the story itself. Amrit is highly trained in commando warfare, which is a kind of martial arts. They’re fighting these goons, who are robbers, who do not have any kind of training. They’re street fighters. And we trained like that. We purposely made sure that it looks very raw and visceral, and it looks uncoordinated because the film is very emotional. I wanted every action sequence to be preceded by some kind of emotional upheaval or turmoil. It could not be one set piece of action after the other. It’s being driven by the characters and their relationships, which are being tested throughout this journey.