Ishaan Khatter ‘fought’ with ‘The Royals’ makers over objectification in the show

Ishaan Khatter’s dashing looks were widely talked about after he made his Hollywood debut in the ‘Netflix’ series ‘The Perfect Couple’. Following his much-discussed appearance on the show, he starred in ‘The Royals’, a romantic comedy-drama where he played the role of an uber-handsome prince. The show featured Ishaan shirtless in several scenes, attracting criticism for gratuitous objectification. However, in a recent interaction, the actor admitted that he had conversations with the makers of the show over his portrayal.

Speaking to ‘Mashable India’, he said, “It’s that kind of character ‘jo shirt nahi pehenta hai’. To be honest, now it will look like… but since I had committed, I went for it, but I did fight with them on certain days that ‘I can wear a shirt in this scene. It doesn’t require him to be shirtless’. They had very interesting ways to put this into the script like I can put on a blanket while sleeping, but I had fun doing it.”

‘The Royals’ also starred Bhumi Pednekar, Zeenat Aman, Sakshi Tanwar, Nora Fatehi, Vihaan Samat, Dino Morea and Milind Soman. Despite receiving negative reviews, the show became one of Netflix’s most-watched shows. Critics called it out for its superficial storyline and lacklustre performances.

For his shirtless scenes in ‘The Royals’, Ishaan had to build muscle and maintain a toned physique. But for his next project - Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Homebound’ - he had to quickly lose all that muscle to look like a regular person. He shared, “The director told me that I will have to lose all the muscles for Homebound. I was like, ‘Yeah’. He said you will have to look normal.” Ishaan said that he lost eight kilograms for the film.