Ishaan Khatter says actors are ‘very coddled’ in India, reflects on entourage culture in Hollywood: ‘I was doing my own laundry every day’

Ishaan Khatter is currently basking in happiness as his film ‘Homebound’ has been shortlisted for the 98th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. The recognition marks an important milestone in the actor’s career and reflects how his work is travelling beyond Indian cinema. As Ishaan celebrates this achievement, he is also opened up about how different work cultures shape an actor’s experience, especially when it comes to entourage culture.

Having worked from Bollywood to Hollywood, Ishaan has seen two very different systems closely. After working on the international project ‘The Perfect Couple’, the actor shared his views on the absence of entourage culture in Hollywood and why he feels actors in India are often overly protected.

Experiencing Hollywood without an entourage

Speaking about ‘The Perfect Couple’, which was shot in Cape Cod, Ishaan described a working environment that removed many layers of comfort he was used to on Indian film sets. There were no assistants, no personal staff, and no familiar safety net.

In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, he said, “They gave me a house and a car and then asked me to drive myself to set.”

Without a personal team, Ishaan handled every part of his routine on his own while shooting ‘The Perfect Couple’. “I was doing my own laundry every day. I was cleaning, cooking for myself, learning my lines while driving to set,” Khatter said.

For more than three months, he worked without anyone from his entourage. The absence of familiar faces made the experience more challenging. He added, “I didn’t know a single person there; I didn’t have a single person from my team.”

Ishaan reflected on how actors are coddled

The experience led Ishaan to reflect on how actors in India are often treated. He said, “We are very coddled, especially as actors.” While he understands that access to domestic help in India is cultural and employment-driven, Ishaan feels it is important to question how easily comfort turns into expectation.

Questioning entitlement versus real necessity

For Ishaan, the issue lies in not questioning what is truly required, “Where is the limit? That should be an individual question. It can’t be the expectation generally.”

Sharing experiences from ‘Homebound’ sets

Recalling his work on Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Homebound’, Ishaan explained how minimalism was part of the director’s clear vision, “Neeraj was very specific. We had one hair and makeup team for all the actors because there was a set look. I was very happy to let go of my people.”

At the same time, Khatter recognises that certain roles demand extra preparation. Speaking about ‘The Royals’, he explained why additional support was essential. “For ‘The Royals’, they needed me to look like a prodigy horse rider in two months. So they had to get me a coach,” he added.

In such situations, Khatter feels that additional support has a clear reason and directly contributes to the role. When the help is tied to preparation or skill-building, it adds real value to the performance rather than becoming an unnecessary extra.

However, Khatter believes the problem starts when spending goes beyond what a film genuinely requires. Ishaan points out that costs should only be incurred if they are essential to the project, stressing that anything unnecessary only adds pressure to productions and blurs the line between need and excess.