By News18
Ishaan Khatter, son of actors Neelima Azeem and Rajesh Khattar and younger brother to Shahid Kapoor, may come from a Bollywood family, but his upbringing was far from glamorous. In a recent interview, the actor opened up about his challenging childhood, revealing that he was raised in modest circumstances, often away from the limelight. He shared that he lived in rented homes and moved 17 times by the age of 16.
During a conversation with MidDay, Ishaan Khatter reflected on his upbringing in Mumbai and the challenges he faced along the way. “All my schooling was in Juhu. I was in Jamnabai for 10 years. Then I went to a school called Billabong High. For two years, I tried to make sense of life as I was used to my friends. I had studied in one school till 8th grade. I always moved homes as we lived in rented houses. It was what people called the Bombay struggling lifestyle. By the time I was 16, I had lived in 17 houses. So, I was changing houses more than my age,” Ishaan said.
He went on to share that changing schools disrupted the familiar social circle he had grown used to, leaving him feeling unsettled. Ishaan added, “Then I started dancing. I told my mom that when I left Jamnabai in 8th grade, my academics started falling.”
However, Ishaan found his calling in dance at the time, and he told his mother that he wanted to take intense dance training. His mother was quite supportive about it. He said, “When I was 17–18, I would take the Mumbai local every day from Andheri to Mahalaxmi and go under that bridge where they have their warehouse, where we practised. A year later, I was offered a job to instruct at Shiamak’s institute.”
Ishaan Khatter was last seen in the Netflix series The Royals, where he starred opposite Bhumi Pednekar. Directed by Priyanka Ghose and Nupur Asthana, the romantic comedy centres around a royal family navigating financial troubles in modern-day India. Ishaan also garnered significant attention when his film Homebound premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.