Actor Ishaan Khatter opened up about being raised by a single mother, and how that shaped his understanding of the world. He said that he enjoyed studies up till a point, but after his parents' separation, he wasn't as academic as he used to be. He also spoke about the financial hardships that he witnessed his mother experience when he was very young, and said that he was raised in a middle class household that couldn't afford to send him abroad for studies. Chatting with Barkha Dutt on Mojo Story, Ishaan acknowledged his privilege, and said that despite everything that he has been through, he is still in the 0.1% of the country's population. Ishaan is the son of Neliima Azeem and Rajesh Khattar, and the half-brother of actor Shahid Kapoor. Asked if his parent's separation impacted his life, Ishaan said, "Any child of divorce grows up before their age because you have to, and you have to understand things that may be a bit beyond your age. The one consistent thing for me was school. I still have my school friends. My memories of school are mainly Jamnabai, and then I shifted two schools after my eighth grade, which is when I stared losing interest in academics. That's when I became a cinephile." He continued, "I wanted to educate myself in the world of cinema and media and dancing and artistry. I wanted to be a cultured kid. So, they allowed me that. I did one year of training as a dancer. I frequented film festivals for three years. I was an assistant director on two films. I didn't do a foreign film course; I couldn't really afford it, to be really frank." Also read - Shahid Kapoor says he didn’t grow up with father Pankaj Kapur around him: ‘From a young age, I felt like man of the house’ Ishaan said that watching his mother navigate her personal and professional lives while raising two boys was hugely inspiring. "Anybody who has been raised by a single mother realises that they are superhuman. It's hard enough being a working mom, and being a working mom who is also a single mom. By the time my brother grew up and was able to take care of himself, I was born. She had to do it twice over. It's a very big part of how I see the world, and my point of view of women has been shaped by that. I remember mom doubling up as both parents, and she was also a woman, living her own life and navigating those years. But she sacrificed most of who she was to put the mother first," he said. Ishaan, who was most recently seen as a marginalised character in Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound, reflected on his privileges, and the access he had to the industry by virtue of being related to Shahid. "I've just done Homebound, so my perspective on privilege is. We're the 0.1%. Even if you're an 'outsider', once you've made it in the industry, you're practically an insider. Our privilege is beyond what we understand. I was born into a household which was a middle class household. I was the first in my family to be born and raised in Mumbai, so I was closer to the film world by virtue of that," he said. Asked about the toughest time that he has experienced in his life, Ishaan said, "My family saw financial rock bottom when I was three or four. I was very young, but that's where it begins. We were very lucky, because my mom worked. She did a TV show in Delhi for three months and got us out of that place. And we slowly started climbing back up the ladder. Even if it's two steps forward and one step back, I have seen it as a positive. So, while I've seen adversity, it has built character in me. It hasn't broken my spirit. The toughest years in my life were early on, and seeing the strife my mother went through was tough to see and understand." In addition to Homebound, which has been selected as India's official entry to the Oscars, Ishaan also starred in the Netflix series The Royals, in which he played a prince whose royal family falls on hard times.
