Ishaan Khatter: I have no ego about being recognised as Shahid Kapoor’s brother, but I don’t intend to ride on his fame – bollywood

Actor Ishaan Khatter has always looked up to this brother 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 got it all easy in the industry due to his connection, and Khatter tells us, “Before answering this, I just want to say that yes, 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. Your sentences can be misconstrued…Anyway, for me, personally, 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 or anything of the sort. 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 am very aware of the fact that I started getting recognised as his brother, when I was 15. Before that, not many people knew too much about me. I started being seen in one-two 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 off his film career with Majid Majidi’s Beyond The Clouds (2017). 

Not many 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 his brother, Khatter says his talent too is getting him recognition.

He says, “I’ve just begun. Why should it take away from my talent? He started off 14 years before me, made such a beautiful place and mark for himself. I will always be his cheerleader, he’s my blood, brother, family. For me, I don’t see any reason to try and create a separate sort of identity for myself. That will happen on it’s own.”

It’s his work, believes the actor, that will help him achieve that. “In the digital age, everything has sped up a lot, I am not a big taker for that. I feel like people get a sense of you, they can’t entirely know who you are as a person. I think that will happen slowly through the years. I am not in any hurry, you can’t tell people ‘look at me this way, think this way’. It should happen naturally,” he ends.

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