Ishaan Khattar: “I’m More Nervous This Time Than I Was The First.”

The  immensely talented Ishaan Khattar admits to being disappointed  by the tepid response to his debut film  . But he is now looking hopefully into the  future.

Snatching  time off from  the  intense  promotion  of  Dhadak the  Hindi remake of the historic Marathi hit Sairat, Ishaan  says, “I am not very adept yet at analyzing box office  figures. But yes, the performance of  my first  film A Walk In  The Clouds  was  disappointing. We could find any number of reasons  for  why the film didn’t work.The best advice that  I got after the film’s low key performance was to move. She felt I had given my best to A Walk In The Clouds and it was time to let go.To me that film will always remain special.”

 Now Ishaan must brace himself  for comparisons with Sairat.  “I am aware that remakes are judged harshly. But we haven’t made Dhadak to be one –up on  Sairat. We went into  the remake  out of our collective love  and respect for the original. Sairat  is  a film that created history. We can’t  even hope to  repeat what it has done.”

Ishaan  admits Dhadak has moved far away from the original.  “Our director Shashank Khaitan  has relocated  the film to Rajasthan and that has made all the difference  in the world. Sairat had a very strong message on things that are happening around  us.And we have been respectful to that message.”

Ishaan admits to having seen Sairat twice. “Once as a member  of  the audience, then as an actor. I was fascinated  by all the stories that surrounded the  making of  Sairat, about how the lead pair Akash Thosar and Rinku Rajguruactually stayed  in  the  director Nagraj Manjule’s house for months.”

Ishaan  says he shared some such bonding happeed with his Dhadak director  too. “Both Janhvi and  I  have grown very close  to  our director Shashank Khaitan.In fact when he  went for two recces to Rajasthan I accompanied him. We are all very protective about one another.”

The young actor who speaks with the confidence of  a seasoned trouper,  has one  request for the audience. “Please don’t judge  our film against the  original. We haven’t made Dhadak  to  prove we can do it better.I agree there has been criticism about the way we’ve done the Zingat song from Sairat.  But there has also been a  lot   of  love from people who are  not waiting to judge  us  unfavourably  in comparison with Sairat