Ishaan Khatter's Road From Dance Class to Cannes

Ishaan Khatter was in the news in 2025 for a film that travelled from Cannes to Toronto, but his path there was less direct than a red-carpet season suggests. This piece follows his published biography and notes where critics were not convinced.

A film family, and a dance academy

According to his Wikipedia biography, Khatter was born on 1 November 1995 and is the son of actors Rajesh Khattar and Neelima Azeem. Through his mother he is related to the family of the writer and director Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. His half-brother is Shahid Kapoor, Azeem's son from her first marriage to Pankaj Kapur. He describes himself as proud of his middle-class values.

He was educated at Jamnabai Narsee School and Billabong High International School in Juhu, Mumbai, and he studied dance at Shiamak Davar's academy. His first screen appearance was as a child in the 2005 film Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi!, in which Kapoor starred.

Learning the job from behind the camera

Before he took a lead role, Khatter worked as an assistant director. The biography credits him with assisting Abhishek Chaubey on Udta Punjab in 2016 and Danish Renzu on the independent film Half Widow in 2017.

The debut that won a Filmfare

His first adult acting role came in Beyond the Clouds (2017), directed by Majid Majidi, in which he played Amir, a drug dealer. The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and reached Indian theatres in 2018. Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that his "noteworthy screen charisma promises well for his future career". He won Best Actor at the 5th International Bosphorous Film Festival and the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.

A commercial hit and a mixed reception

Dhadak (2018), a remake of the Marathi film Sairat, was his first commercial success, with worldwide earnings the biography puts at over Rs 110 crore. Reviewers were divided on the film itself. Uday Bhatia of Mint thought it lacked the depth of the original but found "a soulfulness to [Khatter] that's at odds with Hindi cinema's current penchant for bratty, hyperactive onscreen male personas". Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express disliked the film but called him a "natural" performer with a "mobile, expressive face".

Beyond Hindi cinema

In 2020 he appeared in the BBC One adaptation of A Suitable Boy, directed by Mira Nair, opposite Tabu. The biography says he was drawn to the project because it depicts a romance between an older woman and a younger man, which he hoped would challenge social stigma. He later appeared in the Netflix limited series The Perfect Couple (2024) and the Indian series The Royals (2025). Not every project landed: [Rediff.com](http://Rediff.com)'s Sukanya Verma felt that in Pippa, where he played the real army officer Balram Singh Mehta, he was "trying too hard".

Homebound

The 2025 drama Homebound, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and co-starring Vishal Jethwa, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. According to the biography, it received a nine-minute standing ovation at its first screening and was then selected for the Gala Presentations section at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Variety noted that Khatter and Jethwa gave "immensely endearing and unpredictable performances", and Hindustan Times critic Santanu Das praised his performance as "affecting and powerful".

The image, and the caveat

Outside the films, Khatter has become a fixture on lists. The Times of India placed him at No. 27 in its Most Desirable Men listing in 2018, No. 32 in 2019 and No. 25 in 2020, and in 2025 he was featured in Forbes Asia's 30 Under 30. Rankings of this kind measure popularity, not craft, and the biography notes that [Scroll.in](http://Scroll.in)'s Udita Jhunjhunwala criticised how The Royals objectified him. The more durable record is the critics' repeated point: that his face and manner carry a scene.

Sources

*Cover photo: Gabriel Hutchinson, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).*