Mumbai: Actor Ishaan Khatter, who was recently seen in ‘The Royals’, is carving a niche for himself as one of the most promising young talents in Indian cinema.
Before exhibiting his versatility in ‘The Royals’, Ishaan had impressed critics with his emotionally-charged character in ‘A Suitable Boy’, opposite Tabu.
Sharing his experience of working with an industry veteran like Tabu, Ishaan said he was quite comfortable.
He opened up about the intimate scenes between him and Tabu, admitting that he felt safe while doing his first intimate scenes with her despite their age gap.
“I think a lot of it is in the writing. If you were to put Tabu and I in another story, in another piece of writing, where we overlooked the age gap or that we didn’t address it, it might have looked out of place. But it was the point written into the story in that way, and the text supported what we were doing,” Ishaan told Zoom.
“And with an actress like Tabu, honestly, it’s like, you don’t have to talk about it. I have to say, 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,” he continued.
“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,” he added.
Set in post-partition India, ‘A Suitable Boy’ remains a landmark in Indian television storytelling.
Tabu will be next seen in ‘Bhooth Bangla’, along with Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal.