Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur) - Hindustan Times (Jaipur) - City
‘No ego about being recognised as Shahid Kapoor’s brother’
Actor Ishaan Khatter has always looked up to his brother, actor Shahid Kapoor, and the two gush whenever asked about each other. Recently, Khatter had even said he doesn’t get “irked” when referred to as Kapoor’s brother. Ask him if he has, at any point, felt that this takes away from his own talent, or might make people think he had it all easy in the industry, and Khatter tells us, “Before answering this, I just want to state that I did say I don’t feel irked being recognised as that, but a lot of times, your words are sort of misinterpreted. I am trying to say it as nicely as I can, they are not always represented the way you said something... Anyway, I am very proud of the fact that I am his brother.”
However, he clarifies that it doesn’t mean it’s the only way he’s looking to grow. “I don’t intend to ride on his fame... If somebody recognises me as his brother, I don’t have an ego about it. That’s not something that would ever bother me. But I’m aware that I started getting recognised as his brother when I was 15. I started being seen in a few places with him, then how the media is — there was curiosity about a boy who’s coming into a certain age,” confesses the 24-year-old, who started his film career with Majid Majidi’s Beyond The Clouds (2017).
Not many people know that Khatter, who stars in the recently released A Suitable Boy, also starred in Kapoor’s Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi (2005) as a young boy, and assisted on the sets of Udta Punjab (2016).
Though he admits he started off being known as Kapoor’s brother, Khatter says his talent, too, is getting him recognition. “I’ve just begun. Why should it take away from my talent? He started off 14 years before me, made a mark for himself. I will always be his cheerleader; he’s my blood, brother, family. I don’t see any reason to try and create a separate sort of identity for myself. That’ll happen on it’s own,” he says, adding that it’s his work that help him achieve that. “In the digital age, things have sped up. I am not a big taker for that. I feel like people get a sense of you; they can’t entirely know who you’re as a person. I think that will happen slowly through the years. I’m not in any hurry. You can’t tell people ‘look at me this way, think this way’. It should happen naturally,” he ends.