Over the past few years, Ishaan Khatter has seen a lot of ups and downs in his career and the actor admits that he hasn’t completely moved away from the box-office performance of his films. However, he’s quick to make it clear that he’s not taking it to heart or sticking to it.
“It takes a lot of hard work and energy to make a story happen, and the hope is always that it will come to fruition and reach as wide an audience as possible. But unfortunately, life is a series of ups and downs and you have to accept success or failure and move on. I’d like to think I can take them both in good spirits and focus on getting better each time,” says Khatter, whose recent outings include Khaali Peeli and Phone Bhoot failed to generate the expected response at the box office.
The 27-year-old, who hails from a film family (he is the son of actors Rajesh Khattar and Neelima Azeem), continues, “I wouldn’t be presumptuous to claim that my film choices have made me a better actor. That’s for the audience to decide. But, I definitely tried to pick up where I left off each time and evolve with each new venture.”
Actually, the Dhadak (2018) actor asserts that he has come to terms with the fact that his film journey will be mixed with hits and misses.
The actor, who entered cinema with Majid Majidi Beyond the Clouds (2017), he just focuses on his career in India, but at the same time he is also making global strides. Currently, he is busy with his Hollywood debut, The perfect couple, which also stars Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber. And he admits the crossover is the way forward.
“The language of cinema has always been universal, but there has never been such a strong base and initiative for crossover work as now and the first step is the exchange of talent,” he says, highlighting the growing recognition for Indian talent in the West.
The actor goes on to add, “The recognition is great but I don’t think it changes the narrative specifically for Indian actors but the film fraternity as a whole. I am very happy for Guneet Monga The Elephant Whisperers whom I have known for years and he has always been very kind. RRR Of course it was a worldwide hit and enjoyed all over the world and around the world.
Stressing the importance of “proper and multi-layered representation”, Ishaan says that reducing stereotypes is not only the responsibility of the writer or creator “but also an actor who chooses to represent the written material”.
