In eight years, Khatter’s list of films is short, but the scripts chosen by him prove his intellect and willpower to explore versatile and offbeat roles

In recent years, the topic of nepotism in Bollywood has sold like hot cakes. Every time a new actor enters the screen, their ties to Bollywood are scanned, and if a connection is found, the actor is branded a nepo kid, irrespective of their acting capabilities.

Ishaan Khatter’s story was no different: he was born to lesser-known actors Rajesh Khatter and Neelima Azeem and is the half-brother of actor Shahid Kapoor. However, unlike Shahid Kapoor, who did nearly 20 films in his first eight years, Khatter has done only nine, but out of those nine films, most have been praised heavily by critics – making Khatter the actor who is often projected as a mainstream hero but is silently nailing the non-commercial side of business, dealing with artistic, social and political topics – one project at a time.

As Khatter turns 30, we look at how different his filmography has been so far. 

Beyond the Clouds

Khatter’s first prominent work was Beyond the Clouds, with Khatter’s character being a street hustler and d**g dealer in Mumbai. Directed by Iranian Majid Majidi, who is known for Children of Heaven, the film explores the dark realities of Mumbai and its unwanted relationship with the underw*orld that constantly destroys the lives of young men and women. While Khatter occasionally lacked finesse and appeared rusty, his emotional conviction was unmistakable.

Dhadak 

Dhadak Next was Dhadak, an official remake of the Marathi hit Sairat. Khatter portrayed an innocent boy who falls in love with a girl from a different caste and community. Khatter’s acting in a romantic plot felt fresh, and despite being sort of a commercial project, Dhadak dealt with the social issue of honour k*lling, striking a tone in the hearts of the audience.

Pippa

In 2023, Khatter in Pippa also tried his hand at being the hero, portraying the life of Captain Balram Singh Mehta "Balli" in India's 45 Cavalry regiment. The film was criticised as unserious and bumpy, but Khatter managed to drive his Pippa through all the weak patches of the plot just like Captain Balram did in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Homebound

And who can ignore Homebound, Khatter’s latest with another brilliant talent, Vishal Jethwa? As usual, good scripts rarely win money from the majority of Indian audience, and therefore Homebound has tanked at the box office, but Khatter’s performance has been hailed as career-defining by critics and fans.

At this point, if we simply compare Khatter’s filmography to Shahid Kapoor's in the latter’s early days, Kapoor had only one film, ‘Paathshala’, that tried to address societal issues, whereas the rest of his films were either love stories or comedies, and he was cast as a chocolate boy in nearly all of them.

On this birthday, Ishaan Khatter’s filmography needs a wider audience so they can truly realise that, among newcomers, he is a gem with the potential to do both types of films and could make the boundary between mainstream actors and the artistic ones disappear.