Although he has grown up on the fringes of Bollywood, Shahid Kapoor’s half-brother (an identity he hardly needs today but is proud of nonetheless) Ishaan Khatter’s enviable career trajectory is unlike any actor, especially those having links to the industry. 

Having made an impeccable first impression with his earnest and unstilted portrayal of Amir, a hustler inhabiting the murky world of Mumbai’s underbelly, in Beyond the Clouds (2017)—a movie directed by Majid Majidi, one of the most renowned auteurs of world cinema—he had made it amply clear that he is not here to follow the beaten path. So, it is hardly surprising that seven years later and having established himself as one of the most exciting actors of his generation with an oeuvre that includes works with directors as varied as Mira Nair (A Suitable Boy) and Karan Johar (Dhadak), he is today basking in the success of his Hollywood debut, the Nicole Kidman-starrer, The Perfect Couple.

“Hey, but mine was also supposed to be a Karan Johar debut!” quips Ishaan. But the movie was not Dhadak then. “We were in talks for a different project with a different director, eventually he wanted to make the remake of Sairat with me. Even then I was paired with a different debutante actress, it was not Janhvi (Kapoor). In the meantime, I auditioned for Beyond The Clouds and landed the part. Karan (Johar) was very magnanimous and asked me to go ahead with it.” he says.

As we settle down for this interview, the first question that pops into my mind is: “How do you manage to bag these auditions and land such coveted projects?”  

“Well, I am just that good!” pat comes a cheeky reply. The 29-year-old has a casual charm that is accentuated by a hint of bratty humour. But, if you have watched his movies, chances are that you would find it difficult to not agree with his statement. In his recent release (where the baby-faced actor looks smoking HOT), the way he aces the accent is just another proof. In fact, many have claimed that his act was one of the best in the Susanne Bier (whose 2010 drama, In a Better World, had won an Academy, a Golden Globe, and a European Film Award, and who won a Primetime Emmy for directing The Night Manager) directed star-studded series that weaves an intricate tale of mystery and high-society intrigue.  

Ishaan plays Shooter Dival, the Best Man and the groom, Benji’s childhood friend who has become an honorary member of the Winbury family—it is an interesting mix of an insider-outsider perspective. “When I received the audition self-tape, it seemed like a layered, mysterious character,” says Ishaan. What made it extra interesting for Ishaan was that Shooter Dival was written as a white character in Elin Hilderbrand’s book by the same name from which the series is adapted. Ishaan landed the role because the makers decided to opt for a colour-blind casting. “Although I had heard that for this character, they might be going for an ethnicity-agnostic audition, it was only when I read the script that I realised that it was written as a Caucasian man. In fact, it is a very all-American show. The dark satire of it largely comes from it being set in Nantucket, a town infested with rich, entitled, Caucasian, upper-class Americans. They modified the character slightly once they cast me,” reveals Ishaan.

As far as his accent in the show goes, which impressed his brother Shahid Kapoor and mother Neliima Azeem—both commendable actors—apart from the general audience, Ishaan says that although the director had suggested a British/British-Indian accent, he pushed for a standard American accent: “I told her that I don’t see much sense in the character having a British accent as he has gone to school with Benji and is a Manhattan local. Moreover, it is an all-American setting…all the other actors, although they were of different ethnicities, were speaking in standard American accent.” Hence, they went for it, and Ishaan found a dialect coach on YouTube (Erik Singer who was also Austin Butler’s dialect coach in Elvis) and reached out for help. A mere five sessions later, he was Shooter Dival. “But I was not too clinical about the American accent. Instead, I put in a bit of my original accent as well to add colour, to give a different character to the way Dival spoke.”  

Ishaan acknowledges that a colourblind casting for such a big show was in itself a giant step. “I had no reference points and that is what I found exciting. I think the global audience is more than ready for this. This is what will not only bring true diversity in casting but also bring compelling actors to the forefront,” he opines.

But just getting the accent right doesn’t ensure an easy entry to Hollywood. The fact that Ishaan is a capable actor helps. What also helps is the current focus on Indian cinema and South Asian actors. Before him, actors like Dev Patel (in David Copperfield), Priyanka Chopra (in Quantico), and Himesh Patel (in Yesterday) have been seen playing characters that are either ethnically ambiguous or not written as Indian/South Asians. It seems the perception of and scope for Indian-origin actors are changing, albeit rather slowly. “Yes, they are looking at actors from across the globe in a much bigger way. Post the pandemic, the culture of self-taping auditions has grown, and it has also helped a lot. Cross pollination of cinema, entertainment in general, seems to be on the cards. However, it is a long road still,” agrees the actor.  

Talking about whether there is actually a fresh interest in Indian cinema and Indian actors, Ishaan points out that although people are looking beyond the veneer of the pre-conceived notion that Indian cinema is all about song and dance musicals and there is a curiosity for Indian cinema and Indian actors, it is not a tectonic shift. “These are still small wins that are steering us towards making Indian cinema more central to the scheme of things,” he says admitting that while working on the show, he didn’t find any special interest among the cast and crew in Indian cinema. “They were more interested in our culture; they were interested in my journey—how it is to be an actor working in India and landing such a huge role there.”  

But is it that Indian-origin American actors are getting the bigger piece of the pie instead of actors from India? “By way of convenience, a large part of this profession, especially the opportunities you get, depends on being at the right place at the right time. So, it is definitely a harder route if you are based in India and looking to get work there.”

In fact, Ishaan had started auditioning for roles in the West right after Beyond The Clouds at the behest of his agent. “I have auditioned for a couple of things and got very close to signing projects but eventually those didn’t work out for various reasons. This one came to me in 2023, and it materialised. I had the entire window of four months at a stretch, free to shoot at Cape Cod,” he reveals. 

However, his experience of shooting a Hollywood project was markedly different from what one would usually assume. “We were all staying at Cape Cod through the entire duration of the shoot. Each one of us was given a house and a rental car, and we were all on our own—I had no manager, no support staff and had to make my food, do the dishes, do my laundry and cleaning, apart from doing my lines and prepping for the part, and then go for the shoot. While growing up I didn’t have the resources to travel abroad and experience the world. I was 18 when I first travelled outside India. I treated the experience of shooting for The Perfect Couple as one of studying abroad." Of course, he enjoyed far more privileges than a Uni student—he wasn’t lugging his own bags around and working odd jobs. But it was off-season at Cape Cod, and it was a rather lonely place to be. “Also, since it was an ensemble cast, we had many days off in-between. They wanted blanket dates from all actors for the entire duration. So, for the first time, I started feeling homesick. It was difficult. I am quite adventurous otherwise, but I hardly went anywhere—I drove to New York and Boston a couple of times, but that was about it. And it was almost 130 days,” says Ishaan literally counting the days.

While on outdoor schedules one usually gets to bond with the cast and crew, that was not really the case here: “Usually you are put up in a hotel where you all go back after the shoot and hang out. But here we were staying at the location for four months and each of the lead cast member had their own bungalows—sometimes the distance from the next bungalow was a good 30/40-minute drive. It was lonelier than normal. But since most of us were of the same age, we did hang out together—we would do barbeques, go bowling, go axe throwing...sometimes we would go to Provincetown, which was at the end of Cape Cod. We went whale watching once, went to a drag show...we had a lot of fun. But there were lot of days where we would be in isolation. Also, during that period, the writers’ strike (called by Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America that lasted from May 2 to September 27, 2023) happened. We still had about 10 days of principal photography left when we got struck out. They came picketing at the base and we had to stop work. We could resume only after about 6 months. So, I was there all through—I was probably the first man in and the last man out!”  

And how was it working with Nicole Kidman? “She was amazing and very maternal. But she stays booked, she is busy, she was also the executive producer on the show. So, she came in when we were already 5/6 weeks into the shoot. But once she was there it was just work, she was totally focused. I had a few days of shoot with her. She was very supportive and especially sweet to me. We had some very interesting conversations, but as an actor the one thing I learnt from her, watching her at work, was that there is no room for rigidity in what we do in acting. I saw her do some scenes in a radically different way—you don’t know what will work until you do it. Dare I say, it gave me a little more confidence in my own instincts as an actor—when you find that creative space and that room to play and collaborate with the right kind of people, you should sometimes go with your instinct. And one person I enjoyed seeing that in was Nicole.  Because that is when magic happens; it happens when you are not overly trying to control everything,” says Ishaan. In fact, the series gave all its actors enough room to improvise. “Susanne (director Susanne Bier) used to change the dialogues all the time and there came a point when they couldn’t rewrite as the writers went on strike, so improvisation was the only way!” chortles the actor.  

Indeed, opportunities for Indian-origin actors are opening up like never before. On the other hand, back in India, while we are celebrating ‘content-driven cinema’, with the OTT content increasingly becoming Bollywoodish and mainstream massy South movies emerging as major crowd pullers, the opportunities for actors like him to showcase their talent remains limited. "I only see the positive side of it. I don’t want to limit myself and that is why I sometimes do roles that challenge the status quo. It is not by design, but who I am as an actor. Also, Indian cinema is travelling; there is a global interest. So, I would like to balance the two worlds.”

Ishaan has no plans to pack his bags and shift to Hollywood in search of greener pastures, not yet. “This is home for me, and that will never change. Unless there is a real reason for me to pack my bags and baggage and shift there for a while. I am open to going wherever I find good work. My attempt is to become the best version of an actor that I can be. I have been very lucky so far. Being in this profession for this long, I have managed to learn a few things about the work and about myself as an actor; I intend to put those to good use while picking up projects going forward. I am not going to take things too seriously either. But it might be wiser to keep the door open since I have just got my foot in the door. But I have no delusion about the fact that it takes a tremendous amount of effort to make a career there; you have to start from scratch. I am hoping there will be good opportunities for me both in India and in Hollywood.” 

CREDITS:

Editor: Shivangi Lolayekar 
Writer: Ananya Ghosh 
Photographer: Vansh Virmani 
Stylist & Creative Producer: Suprit Parulkar 
Hair: Team Hakim's Aalim 
Makeup: Nalini Ferns 
Dressman: Dhanesh Gosai 
PR: Jio Creative Labs 
Location: Creatorland