ISHAAN KHATTER FINDING HIS FEET

ISHAAN KHATTER IS LEARNING TO STRIKE A BALANCE BETWEEN THE COMMERCIAL SIDE OF THE FILM INDUSTRY AND HIS INNER CALLING

Ishaan Khatter is not your typical Bollywood star-kid. Son of actress Neelima Azim and half-brother of Shahid Kapoor, Khatter had a rather unglamorous, muted debut with Beyond the Clouds, Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s first Hindi feature. His next Dhadak, a Hindi remake of Marathi blockbuster Sairat, was a safer bet, but he would take another 18 months to figure out what he would do next. First of those projects is the Mira Nair-directed adaptation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, all six episodes of which will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. Khatter plays Maan, “a good-looking young wastrel forever”, whose lyrical romance with an older courtesan Saeeda (Tabu) stirs plenty of controversy and conflict. “He’s an eternal wanderer,” says Khatter of his character. “He almost feels like he is following his own set of rules which immediately made him very interesting to me. His choices don’t adhere to convention and what people expect of him.” Khatter is a bit of a nonconformist himself. The 24-year-old actor is learning to negotiate between the commercial diktats of the industry and his own inner calling. “There is pressure to conform to a certain image that people have liked of you and it is encouraged to not change that,” says Khatter. “Ironically, being an actor is to explore various dimensions of yourself and to change yourself.” A Suitable Boy, he knew, would give him that and showcase his talent to the world just like Nair’s The Namesake had done for Irrfan Khan. Khatter had heard of but not read the book when he auditioned for one of Seth’s favourite characters in the book. Welsh writer Andrew Davies’s 500-pagelong script would be his first glimpse into the story of a newly independent India seen through the eyes of four families. While Khatter stayed away from the book so as to not “get caught up in things we wouldn’t be showing”, he still used it as “guidebook” while shooting in Lucknow. “Every other night I would open the chapter which would describe the scene [we were shooting the next day] and if I felt it was adding something of value, then I would use it,” he says. “At the same time, I wanted to be open to what Tabu was doing and bringing something new; the interpretation is important to me.” It has made an impression on the press in the UK, where the series is playing on BBC One, with The Sunday Times magazine calling him a “Sunday-night star”. Khatter isn’t mulling much on if the series will translate into more opportunities abroad. For now, he’s just glad to get out of his home and resume work, shooting his next Hindi feature, Khaali Peeli.

“I don’t understand this fixation with Bollywood, the airport look, the parties”

—Suhani Singh

Bengaluru-based radio jockey, humourist, actor and host Danish Sait has been at it for a decade but it took a lockdown for people beyond the South to recognise his funny bone. His short videos essaying a whole cast of characters he has created—Rammurthy Avare, Nagarajan the humble politician, Bevarsi Kudka (noble soul with a good heart), Asgar or Chacko Cheta, Didi Madam, Jaya, Razia—get instant likes on Twitter and Instagram. Some were already popular locally, courtesy Sait’s eight-year stint as RJ and prank caller with Fever 104 FM, a gig he only recently quit. What’s taken Sait by surprise is “the sudden acceptance of content from the south” in the western and northern belts. “I feel the format change from audio to video has helped,” he says.

Capitalising on Sait’s newfound fame, Amazon Prime Video released his second Kannada film, French Biryani, in June. His first, Humble Politician Nograj (2018), had won him a South Indian International Movie Award for best debut. Sait has reprised the character for an eightepisode series which is expected to release later this year on a streaming platform.

In September, Sait will head to the UAE for the Indian Premier League where he will sport a moustache to be the Royal Challengers Bangalore team’s unwanted cheerleader, Mr. Nags. But, as Sait says, he’s not doing anything different. “It is just about magnifying what I already had.”

One reason that Sait’s humour resonates with a wider audience is that he largely stays clear of controversy. “My mother always told us that religion and politics are personal...so keep your mouth shut,” he says. While a host of stand-up comedians in Mumbai recently received death and rape threats for older videos and had to apologise, Sait’s humour has proven to be safer. Before publishing his videos, he shares them with his “offence metres”—sister Kubbra Sait (of Sacred Games fame), and his girlfriend.

Instead of politics, Sait’s interest lies in improv comedy. “I love that from nothing or one thing, you can build a story.” Sait has also been a part of director-writer Saad Khan’s popular show The Improv.

Sait’s career is going well enough that he doesn’t feel the need to follow his sister to Mumbai. “My calling was to do stories in whatever form or platform, never to be an actor in Hindi films,” says Sait. “I don’t understand this fixation with Bollywood, the airport look, the parties. Also I can’t stand the weather in Mumbai. When I am at a party there I am just thinking that this person next to me must be sweating like me.” Sait is content in Bengaluru. “For me, the priority is not the destination but the work,” he says.

The top hit (22 million views) is his 2012 Dakhani-style rendition in Dubai of ‘Bulaati hai magar jaane ka nai’. Some poets comment in between their recitation; Rahat interspersed lyrics in his commentary. He is a poet of 2010, he says, not the ’60s-’70s. What does that mean? It means he will not go home empty-handed; he will snatch the stars and take them along.

The second (21 million views) is his 2017 appearance on The Kapil Sharma Show. He leaves the redoubtable Navjot Singh Sidhu speechless. His couplets are maudlin. The host Sharma eggs him on to provide “something romantic” for the young people in the audience. Rahat responds with advice in a couplet: when you shake a hand, press it too (yes, like that!).

Keep scrolling and you will see several examples of how Rahat dragged Urdu shayari out of nostalgia and into the world wide web. The histrionics, the commentary that draws in the uninitiated...along with his poetic ability meant Rahat could stoop to conquer an age that condemns self-doubt and celebrates brash confidence.