It seems Ishaan Khatter caught the seven-year-itch. After a lukewarm career in Bollywood, which began in 2017, he has finally returned to public memory as Shooter Dival in the Hollywood murder mystery series, The Perfect Couple, alongside Nicole Kidman and Liev Schriber.
An adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s book of the same name, the plot gains momentum when a wedding party in the posh Winbury residence goes wrong, following the discovery of a dead bridesmaid. Khatter’s enigmatic Shooter Dival is the best man, but also an outsider who has found his way into the elite clan. The 28-year-old actor describes his character as “an animal who moves in his path”. “I found the character distinct and individualistic; one who has an arc through the story. I found the why of his whys quite interesting. As a performer, one is always looking at layers to play with,” elaborates Khatter, who has become somewhat of a heartthrob following his abs-flaunting scene in the show.
Though the character of Shooter Dival is white in the book, Khatter is appreciative of the casting process for going beyond ethnic boundaries. He also liked the fact that it didn’t feel like a “token representation” of a character. “Given the diversity narrative in the West. it is easy to fall into the trap of casting somebody for that reason, and not for what they bring to the table as an actor,” he says, adding, “I was happy that it was devoid of all those trappings, and I saw the potential in biting into this character and making it my own.”
Khatter has not tread the conventional path in Bollywood. The actor had a soft launch in Indian cinema in 2017 with the intellectually stimulating Beyond the Clouds by Majid Majidi, before making a quintessential Bollywood debut a year later with Dhadak under the Dharma banner. Although his films in the last couple of years—Khaali Peeli, Phone Bhoot and Pippa—did not have the desired impact, Khatter seems to have given it a positive spin.
“I have been lucky to have these opportunities, and it is a recurring theme in my career. I have never worked with the same team twice. This is a field of independent creative minds and people have a different way of working, and that’s what has made me more adaptive as a performer,” he says, adding, “I don’t want to be a flavour of the season and am in this for the long haul. I want to keep surprising people, and grow as an actor, and do stuff that keeps people engaged across all mediums.”
Currently working on The Royals, a contemporary regal romance that also stars yesteryear’s actor, Zeenat Aman, Ishaan says he is one of the fortunate few who have had the chance to share screens with the iconic women of cinema. “All the women I have worked with, it has been a bit of a dream. They are actors who have been in a constant renaissance of sorts in their careers, seeing the kind of diverse narratives that they have been part of,” he says.
In The Royals, Khatter plays a modern-day Prince Charming. “It is an interesting part and has all the so-called novelesque flairs to it. That apart, there are grey shades to my character, which makes it intriguing and compelling. It is a satirical take on contemporary royals, and I think it will be a fun watch for audiences globally.”
Having now worked both in Hollywood and Bollywood, Khatter finds the latter a lot more free-flowing, even as Hindi cinema is grappling with content fatigue and evolving viewer demands.
The actor, however, believes that it is not as complicated as it is being made out to be. His solution is simple. “Just make good stuff. People need to stop pre-determining what works or doesn’t work because that is a trap. We need to refocus on who we are as a people, and tell stories that come organically to us,” he says, adding, “That is where the South is getting it right. They are thriving in the theatres because they have a strong sense of self. And that is what the audience relates to.”