Tanya Maniktala on dealing with blood on sets of KILL, how 'Mumbaikar' didn't give her that success & more

Tanya Maniktala has been evolving as an actress and has moved far in her journey which began with the show 'Flames' as she is now turning heads with her latest offering 'KILL'. The actress who was a part of the Dharma film co-starring Lakshya Lalwani and Raghav Juyal recently got into a candid conversation with India Forums and talked about the film, her role, her camaraderie with Lakshya and how her journey has been in the industry.

When asked, "So, how has it been? Do you feel overwhelmed? Because the journey of Kill itself has been so overwhelming, and you know, the whole way it's been going from Hollywood to here, and now it's also getting a Hollywood remake?"

Tanya responded, "Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is really overwhelming because at the time when we were making it, when we were working on it, we knew there was so much hard work being put in. There was so much labor being put in, blood, sweat, tears, literally all of it was important at the time. But we did not, I mean, I did not expect it to move the way it did, but we hoped for those things, and it just feels so; I think I am so content right now where it seems like, okay, it's come full circle. All the love that has gone into the making of it is finally receiving all that love back. So, it really does feel very good."

When questioned, "At the trailer launch event, Karan was saying that he doesn't know what it is, but Nikhil Bhatt looks so silent and shy, and then what is happening inside his mind that you will obviously see in the movie Kill. What do you feel about him? Did you also feel the same, that he is very silent and nice, but then when he comes with the script, this is what he gets?"

To this, she remarked, "Yeah, but he is all of this. He is a very calm man. He has a very calm demeanour, and it's just genius. He is constantly working all the time, coming up with the wackiest of ideas and creativity to another level. So, we don't know what's going on. It's like you can never judge a book by its cover."

Adding about the gore in the film and her reaction to it she gushed, "It was very gory, and there was so much action. I love the genre, but I've never been a part of something like this before. The most interesting thing is that all of the action sequences, everything that you see in the movie, was in the script. Everything was in detail. Nikhil Sir had created everything. He had created such an easy path for everybody else that everything was jotted down so we knew exactly where his vision was heading, where the movie was heading, and where these characters were moving. So, all of that being said and done, when I was reading those details and action sequences, it wasn't boring because, obviously, there were just pages and pages and pages. Honestly, it was never, even for a second, I was bored because I was trying to recreate all those things in my head. And now, what I see on screen is just far superior to what I even imagined."

Check the interview here:

When questioned, "While there was just a short part of  Amrit and Tulika's love story, there's still a lot of emotional depth in that, and because of that, everything is happening. How did you feel about that, and what's your camaraderie with Lakshya?

She said, "That still means so satisfying. There wasn't a lot of it shown on screen, but I was just so glad that it translated and people connected with that kind of emotion, that kind of love, that kind of love does still exist. We actually go to war for the person that we love. So, I was deeply glad that people connected with it because that is the underlying emotion of all the action that goes on in the movie, and that is the calculus. Nikhil Sir, when we met, did tell that it's a smaller part, but it's a huge responsibility. So, we were playing well. We always had that in the back of our heads, that this is where things are going to take a turn for the better, for the worse. So, this has to be executed well. 

She further added, "My camaraderie with Lakshya is great. He's always made me feel very comfortable. It was his birthday, I think, when we started, 19th of April. After our reading sessions and everything, I remember he's like, "Bro, come on, let's do it." We always used to have these hangout sessions. We were shooting from April, and then it was July, and I was shooting on my birthday. So, we've just been involved in this process for a while now. Over time, we were just like two friends who were just having a great time, and we were really in love with each other."

To the question, "When such things are happening, as audiences say that I'll faint, I'll be unconscious. Have you ever experienced something like that? Were there people who actually fainted, or were they extremely shocked?"

She exclaimed, "I was extremely shocked. I was so taken aback, I can't digest the sight of blood. There was just so much blood, I don't know, my brain was somewhere else. My hand was cut off, my face was distorted. I was taken aback, but no, everything was so professional because everybody knew what was happening, what they were doing. I used to get very scared when action sequences happened in front of me. I used to really be like, kya tum theek ho, to everyone and they would say, "Yeah, it's okay, it's okay. We'll do our job." We were really trained actually, but then it was just another loss of memory that they were playing out."

When asked, "Talking about your journey, technically, your debut film was Mumbaikars, and it also had great names. There was Vikrant and Vijay Sethupathi. Did you have that sense of feeling? Okay, now that I'm associated with these big names, something great will happen. But of course, things didn't work that way. Now that Kill is happening on such a gigantic level, do you feel that whatever you expected from Mumbaikars will happen with Kill, and your journey will probably be more successful?

Tanya gushed, "I hope so. I really, really hope that this will be just the start of bigger and better things. But even with Mumbaikars, I think when I read the story, we knew it was a remake of a South Indian movie already, Maanagaram. So, we knew that the scope of the girl's character wasn't that much. It was, again, just the heroes and none of the guys taking up the forefront, which again was the case with Kill as well, which I thought would be a little complicated for me because how do you grapple with a situation where I have been doing shows on my own? As a female lead, I was playing the lead role, but now I was just one of the characters. That was something that I had to work on. 

She further added, "But again, I just knew that Mumbaikars wasn't going to play out, and it also took a very long time to actually release. We shot it during COVID times, and it was released only recently. All my expectations from that one were done by that time. It was long down in the bag. But now with Kill, I'm doing this again, a smaller role, but such a pivotal one that I had to give it my all. I had to exude that sort of endearment, that empathy that you should feel for that character. So, I thought that no matter what the scale of the role might be, you have to give it your all, and now it's up to the audience to say."

KILL was released on 5th July in India and has been receiving rave reviews from the audiences.