Ishaan Khatter on his working experience with Tabu and Nicole Kidman: They are stalwarts in their own right
Ishaan Khatter reflects on collaborating with “strong creative women”, how it influences him as an artiste and working experience with Tabu and Nicole Kidman'
The recently released teaser of the upcoming web show The Royals sees actor Ishaan Khatter play royalty on screen and being paired opposite actor Bhumi Pednekar. Apart from her, the actor is surrounded by multiple renowned female actors in the show including Zeenat Aman, Sakshi Tanwar and Sumukhi Suresh. Ishaan Khatter admits that his film choices, coupled with his destiny, have been such that he has been surrounded by a strong female force at work, and it has influenced him as an artiste too.
“Call it serendipity or destiny, I've been very fortunate in my career that I've gotten to work with some strong creative women, be it Mira Nair who directed me in A Suitable Boy or Sussane Bier who directed The Perfect Couple. Then there was Priya Seth who shot Pippa, and Farah Khan who has choreographed me. On screen too, I have had the privilege of acting with the wonderful women, Tabu and Nicole Kidman. They are stalwarts in their own right and there's so much to learn from them.” he says.
The actor adds that the influence of women on him started at home with his mom, actor Nileema Azmi. “I was raised by a single mom, and she is one of the biggest inspirations in my life not only as a person, but also as a creative artiste. She was also a dancer and a fantastic actress. So, it was never a mystery to me the magic that women bring to the table,” he says.
Ask him how female actors are different from their male counterparts and Ishaan responds, “One big thing that seems to be the uniting factor for most of the female actors that I've worked with is that they're extremely adaptable. They're able to work with different kinds of people, in different kinds of environments, very seamlessly. It's not a generalisation, but something that I have noticed. Call it people management or self-management, they seem to get that much more easily. They're able to effortlessly flow into things,” he says, recalling his experience of working with Nicole. “I saw Nicole making certain choices on set that were very unexpected. She said that there is no wrong way of doing it and the only wrong way of doing it is to restrict yourself and not allow the possibilities. That's a big learning for me as an actor,” he ends.