Ishaan Khatter calls Tabu ‘naughty’, says intimate scenes with her happened seamlessly in A Suitable Boy

Ishaan Khatter shares how Tabu made him feel secure during sensitive scenes, highlighting their seamless collaboration in A Suitable Boy.

Bollywood actor Ishaan Khatter is currently receiving praise for his performance in the series The Royals. In an interview with Zoom, he spoke about working with Tabu in A Suitable Boy, particularly the experience of filming intimate scenes with her, and shared how she made him feel safe and at ease on set. (Also Read: Ishaan Khatter interview: ‘In 7 years I’ve had 3 theatrical releases, yet I’ve been fortunate’)

Ishaan Khatter opens up on doing intimate scenes with Tabu in A Suitable Boy.

Ishaan credited the success of their on-screen chemistry in A Suitable Boy to the strength of the writing. He noted that the storyline deliberately acknowledged the age gap between their characters, which helped ground their relationship in authenticity and made it feel natural within the context of the story.

Ishaan on how Tabu made him feel safe

He also recalled how Tabu made him feel secure during sensitive scenes and said, "And with an actress like Tabu, honestly, it's like, you don't have to talk about it. I have to say, and this sounds, I don't know, this might sound off or something, but I was not freaked out, absolutely not. In fact, I felt safer, because I was playing off of an actor who I knew would not only understand what I'm doing, but like, take it somewhere else, and I think, that's the beauty of it with Tabu, we never had to speak about what we're doing in a scene."

Ishaan on doing intimate scene with Tabu

Discussing the shoot further, Ishaan described the intimate scenes with Tabu as seamless. He shared, “She would be talking about random things, like, what do you want for lunch or something, or like, usko dekha kaise aankhe banara tha... She is very naughty, she's like a child on set. She could be making a joke, and then suddenly, she could be like this character, so like, I think it was fun, just so much fun working with her because so much of what we do is, of course, you bring the words to life, but so much of what we do is, how do you make a moment dense? How do you make it come alive? How do you communicate more without saying anything? And it just happened, like, seamlessly with Tabu, you know, it was just like a conversation with our eyes.”

About A Suitable Boy

The television drama series A Suitable Boy, directed by Mira Nair and adapted by Andrew Davies from Vikram Seth’s 1993 novel of the same name, features Tanya Maniktala, Tabu, Ishaan Khatter, Rasika Dugal, Mahira Kakkar, Ram Kapoor, Namit Das, Vivaan Shah, Mikhail Sen, Danesh Rizvi, Shahana Goswami, Ranvir Shorey, Vijay Varma and Kulbhushan Kharbanda in key roles.

The story revolves around 19-year-old university student Lata, played by newcomer Tanya Maniktala, who grapples with the expectations of old traditions and an overbearing mother determined to find her a suitable husband. The series is available to stream on Netflix.

Ishaan Khatter and Tabu's upcoming movies

Tabu will be next seen in the movie Bhooth Bangla helmed by Priyadarshan. The film also stars Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal and is scheduled to release in theatres in 2026. Ishaan was most recently seen in the show The Royals. While the actor is yet to annnounce his new project, his film, Homebound recently premiered in Cannes Film Festival 2025 and got a 9-minute standing ovation. Helmed by Neeraj Ghaywan and backed by Karan Johar, the film also stars Janhvi Kapoor and Vishal Jethwa in key roles.