The Perfect Couple: I liked that my character was objectified

You’ve been walking the red carpet in London and LA and the show you’ve done with Nicole Kidman is in Netflix’s most-watched charts.

How does that feel?
“Overwhelming, in a good way,” says Indian actor Ishaan Khatter.

The past few weeks have been intense for the 28-year-old, who plays Shooter Dival in murder mystery The Perfect Couple.

Ishaan says taking the part “was a no-brainer”, even though it was different to what he’s previously done.
“The most exciting thing about it, the most reassuring thing about it, was the way the character was written and the fact that it didn’t feel like a token diversity character,” he says.

‘Yes, I was objectified’
Ishaan, from Mumbai, has largely made his name in Bollywood with films like Pippa and Dhadak, also starring in BBC drama A Suitable Boy.

Speaking to BBC Asian Network’s Haroon Rashid, he says the casting process for The Perfect Couple was “ethnicity agnostic” and actors from various backgrounds auditioned.

He says his character Shooter is mysterious and “three-dimensional” and credits the writers and director Susanne Bier for this.
“The fun is to play into the red herrings,” he says.
“It’s all you want, for audiences to really be taken for a ride. And it’s a testament to good craft,” he says.

A shower scene featuring Shooter was used in the show’s trailers and Ishaan says it was a rare example of a

Hollywood production portraying a South Asian man as “desirable”.
“Yes, I was objectified,” he says, with a smile.
“It was one of the things that made the character unique and appealing to me.
“It makes it kind of a moment in history in that sense.
“I just thought it was a cool character in general and it was fun to play into that,” he says.

And he’s aware of how significant this shift could be going forward in giving more opportunities for South Asian actors in Western productions.

Ishaan says viewers will see young male Indian actors in “a new light”.
“As an audience I would be saying: ‘Hell yeah, this is what we should be doing more of.’
“I understand the sacredness of being put in a position where you’re representing on a global scale.
“I’m so happy to be in this position and to be able to be a part of something that is a stepping stone,” he says.

Earning a place on a cast which already contained the likes of Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber and Dakota Fanning led Ishaan to ask director Susanne why she picked him.

He was taken aback at her answer: “She was like: ‘I feel like you could be happy. You have it in you to be a happy person.’
“She was looking for a similar string in the character,” he says.

But despite having “a young career so far”, he felt prepared enough “to have the self-confidence to hold my own and be myself”.
“So I’m just doing me. I’m not going to do anything different.”

He also credits those names and the wider team for helping him through difficult moments.
Ishaan says filming in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was a “long, drawn-out process” over four months, and a place where where he experienced homesickness for the first time.

But he says the cast bonded and that proved to be the difference.
“We only had each other’s company,” he says.
“Being able to hang out, do activities like axe-throwing or whale-watching.
“It definitely helped with the homesickness.”