Ishaan Khatter on crafting his path to Hollywood: ‘You’re only as good as your last work’

When one is born into a family with celebrated ties to Bollywood, the world can safely assume their path to stardom would be paved with marquee roles and big-budget blockbusters. Ishaan Khatter’s rise, in that context, stands out as a departure.

Born into a family of cinematic luminaries — his mother Neelima Azeem is an acclaimed actress and half-brother Shahid Kapoor one of Bollywood’s leading men — Khatter had every reason to take the easier route.

“Mine wasn’t a family that would make a call and get you a job,” he tells The Independent. “It was always about earning your stripes.”

Khatter debuted in 2017, not with a massive Bollywood launch but with Iranian director Majid Majidi’s Beyond the Clouds, a low-budget, realistic drama about two impoverished siblings trying to survive within the complex web of the Mumbai underworld.

“It kind of set the foundation for me as an actor,” Khatter recalls. “Majidi sir was like a father figure to me. A taskmaster, but also a master of his craft. He pressed the right buttons with me, and it reinforced the kind of actor I wanted to be — always pushing myself, always growing.

“At the time, working with him felt a little surreal, like some sort of miracle, but ultimately, it was a really beautiful, reassuring thing. Beyond the Clouds gave me a lot of energy going forward, like I was allowed to be ambitious for the kind of career I wanted, the kind of roles I wanted to play. Before it, it all felt a bit out of reach.”

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From there, Khatter’s journey has been anything but predictable.

Despite his Bollywood pedigree, Khatter points out that his childhood was more about immersion in the arts than building a pipeline to the film industry.

“Growing up with my mom and seeing her dedication to her craft, I was naturally drawn to this world,” he says. “But nothing was handed to me. It was about finding my own voice.

“I will say that the advantage that I have and acknowledge, is that it was maybe easier for me to chase my passion for the arts because my family understood it, having done it themselves.”

“My mother definitely has, and I want to credit her for instilling certain things in me that make me want to be capable on my own, find myself, and be independent.”

This ethos has shaped every career move Khatter has made. Following Beyond the Clouds, he embraced the romance genre in Dhadak, a commercial success that brought him closer to a more mainstream audience. But instead of resting on that success, Khatter pivoted again, choosing the challenging role of Maan Kapoor in the BBC adaptation of Vikram Seth’s 1993 novel A Suitable Boy.

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His Hollywood debut came soon after, on Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, where he played Shooter Dival, a character layered with charm and mystery.

“It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced before,” he says. “The setup was amazing, and the response has been incredible. Within the screen time I had, I’m thrilled people enjoyed Shooter and the curiosity around him.”

But how did he land the role, alongside Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman and Emmy-nominated Liev Schreiber? Khatter recalls the audition, telling The Independent it all started with a tape he sent after recording it by himself.

“An agent reached out to me after I did Beyond the Clouds, and suggested I try working in the West. He let me know what I needed to do, and it was literally just one tape. I ran the lines off of myself because I didn’t have anyone to help me that day. And I got a callback, so I was definitely lucky there,” he says.

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One could argue that The Perfect Couple isn’t his first Hollywood work, considering he appears in a fun cameo in Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up.

“That was actually my audition tape!” he laughs. “I sent in a self-taped video, and got a call from a producer who told me Adam loved it and said, ‘This works; we don’t even need to shoot.’ But it was super cool to have been in it.”

Speaking of “cool things” that Khatter has been a part of, the internet loved The Perfect Couple’s opening credits sequence which sees the entire cast perform a synchronised dance to Meghan Trainor song “Criminals”.

However, as it turns out, no one in the cast wanted to do it and even attempted a mutiny to get director Susanne Bier to change her mind.

“Yeah, I think we were all a little thrown off and it was the last thing we shot. And it wasn’t on the script, so we couldn’t figure out if it was a joke or if it was serious. All of us are going, ‘What’s going on? Are we really supposed to do this?’” he says.

“And then we saw the dance, and it was so unserious. It’s probably the first murder mystery that starts with a musical number. It really throws off the audience, and you don’t know what to expect. So I think everybody’s hesitation came from the fact that we just didn’t understand it at first.”

Did he have to rehearse?

“Well no, not really, it was just a good bit of fun. It was a little surreal to see actors like Nicole Kidman and Isabella Adjani doing a TikTok-esque dance, but the entire cast went in with the idea that if we’re doing this, let’s just do it and not take it seriously. By the end of it, everyone was having a ball, and I think the energy translated on to the screen,” he recalls.

“A funny story about that dance number, when I was at the afterparty in LA after the premiere the showrunner told me that the reason they did that was because they saw my dancing!”

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Despite all of the attention, Khatter keeps himself grounded. “Success and failure are two sides of the same coin,” he reflects. “You’ve got to keep a larger perspective. It’s my passion for the craft that drives me. The stakes are always high, and you can’t sleepwalk through anything.”

As he speaks about his journey, one thing becomes clear: Khatter remains committed to his craft, yet equally resolute to staying authentic. “You’re only as good as your last piece of work,” he says. “It’s a great exercise in being present.”