A special screening of ‘Kill’ was held in the capital yesterday. It was attended by actors like Raghav Juyal, Lakshya and Tanya Maniktala. In a press conference held after the screening, Lakshya and Raghav Juyal admitted that they did not have many ‘choices’ when the film came to them. Lakshya also revealed who he took inspiration from for his character, while Raghav said that he feels this film will establish him as a bankable actor in Bollywood.

Talking about why Lakshya decided to debut with ‘Kill’, the actor said, “I didn’t have many options. I had a film, ‘Dostana’, which got shelved and another film, but I didn’t see anything happening there.”

He further added, “I don’t have any big scenes, all the heavy lifting is done by this great actor (pointing to Raghav Juyal). He has all the funny dialogues. So when I got a call from the director and he asked me, ‘What do you think?’, I said ‘What do I think? My job here is just to kill (My job is just to beat people), but with emotions.”

Lakshya finally said, “When I got the script, I thought that now that I have this script, I have to die for this role. I have to make sure that no one can play the role better than me. That’s how I worked on the film.”

Raghav echoed the same sentiment and said in Hindi, “I didn’t get a chance to ‘choose’ in my career. I myself didn’t know that I could play a villain; it’s something I realised myself. I auditioned for the role and the casting directors liked my acting and that’s how I got the role.”

Talking about preparing for the role, Lakshya said that he took inspiration from Amitabh Bachchan for the role rather than watching Hollywood films. “I didn’t have to do any preparation for the character; it was written the same way in the script. Whatever you saw on screen was written exactly the same way by our director (Nikhil Nagesh Bhat). So, we didn’t follow any reference,” he said.

He also added, “Of course, we took inspiration from actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan. We talk about the West, but the angry young man was ours. We tried to take inspiration but also keep our originality intact. The only thing we had in mind was that we wanted to make a desi film.”

Raghav Juyal said that he feels his character and performance in ‘Kill’ will establish him as an ‘actor’. “When I was offered this role, I understood that it is a powerful character, and this is what will establish me as an actor in this industry. I am very excited because playing a villain is a lot of fun, and it opens up a lot of space. Also, there was a very thin line of not overdoing it, but I tried to make it realistic, keep it unpredictable and dangerous, but also tried to keep it breezy and cool.”

The actors also thanked Karan Johar of Dharma Productions, Guneet Monga of Sikhya and director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat for giving ‘outsiders’ like them the opportunity to be a part of the film.

‘Kill’ is releasing in theatres on July 5.