{"id":196846,"date":"2025-10-08T06:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/196846\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T06:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:18:07","slug":"ishaan-khatter-opens-up-on-being-born-in-a-mixed-faith-household-growing-up-with-a-single-mom-after-parents-neliima-azeem-rajesh-khatter-separated-hindi-movie-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/196846\/","title":{"rendered":"Ishaan Khatter opens up on being born in a ‘mixed-faith’ household, growing up with a single mom after parents Neliima Azeem, Rajesh Khatter separated | Hindi Movie News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ishaan Actor Ishaan Khatter<\/a> is currently seen in ‘Homebound’ which is now India’s official entry to the Oscars. After being showcased at prestigious global film festivals, the film released in India but did not get the same reception at the box office, as the appreciation and praise. The film addresses and explores themes of caste and faith and in a recent interview, Ishaan also opened up on growing up in an interfaith housefold. His mother Neelima Azeem<\/a> was raised in a ‘liberal Muslim household’ and she helped him appreciate India’s cultural diversity. Ishaan also spoke about his mother’s separation from his father Rajesh Khatter when he was just four years old. He also became aware at that point about the financial struggles which his mother went through while raising him and his half brother Shahid Kapoor<\/a>. Neelima was earlier married to Pankaj Kapoor and Shahid was also nearly 3-4years when they got separated. She then married Rajesh Khatter. Talking about his film and his personal view on religion and diversity, Ishaan said during a chat with Barkha Dutt on Mojo Story, \u201cThere are a few aspects, and I\u2019ll tie them all in. What\u2019s most beautiful about (director) Neeraj Ghaywan\u2019s gaze is that he\u2019s not pointing any fingers, or trying to indict. That\u2019s not the goal of this film. He genuinely wants to empathise with everybody, including his adversaries. He wants to sit down and have a conversation. This film is not an argument; it\u2019s a conversation.\u201dHe went on to emphasise the need for open and respectful dialogue on polarising issues. \u201cReligion, for me, has meant many things. Identity, which is a theme of Homebound, ties in with religion. I was born in a mixed-faith household. That, to me, is my idea of my country: unity in diversity. It\u2019s our strength, and it\u2019s what\u2019s beautiful about us as a people. It\u2019s a big part of our identity that\u2019s important to protect. Religion is, and should be, a personal thing. Of course, it unites so many people together, and that\u2019s what\u2019s beautiful about it. But when it\u2019s used to divide, I take a step back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poll<\/p>\n

Do you find mixed-faith households contribute positively to the values of children?<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his early artistic influences, Ishaan recalled, \u201cI grew up watching Pandit Birju Maharaj and my mother performing kathak, and it\u2019s there in my mom so intrinsically. I\u2019ve got most of my education about festivals and the history behind them from my mom. She was born in a very liberal Muslim household.\u201d He also pointed out that the real-life individuals who inspired his and Vishal Jethwa\u2019s characters in Homebound were close friends despite belonging to different religions.Sharing his concern about the current social climate, Ishaan observed that religion is increasingly becoming \u201cmore of an excuse to divide people,\u201d something he finds deeply \u201csad.\u201d He also expressed heartfelt admiration for his mother\u2019s resilience, after separation from his father. Speaking about his childhood, he said, “I think I enjoyed education and studies up till a certain point. And then, every child is dealing with their own circumstances. I grew up before my age. I had an eventful childhood.” When asked if it was because of the divorce of his parents, he said, “I think that was one of the reasons. Any child of divorce grows up beyond their age because they have to understand everything. The one consistent thing for me was school. At least I had my school friends and they are still my best buddies.”Further opening up on growing up with a single mom and how it influenced who he is, he said, “Anyone who is raised by a single mom will realise they are super human. It’s hard enough being a working mom but being a single mother, raising two boys…. By the time my brother grew up, I was born. It’s just a big part of how I see the world, my understanding of women, even from the point of view of a boy or young man, has been shaped by that.” When asked about what the women in his life say about him, he said, “Atleast I try to understand and leave space for benefit of doubt where it doesn’t come naturally.” Talking about what he remembers about those years, he said, “What I remember is mom doubling up as both parents. She was also a woman navigating those years. A working woman, an artist. Most of the years, she put the mother in her first. That was a sacrifice and I saw her struggle with it. But it comes naturally to her and a lot of women.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor Ishaan Khatter is currently seen in ‘Homebound’ which is now India’s official entry to the Oscars. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,97529,97525,97526,97527,97533,97532,97528,25885,97531,97530],"class_list":{"0":"post-196846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-homebound-film","13":"tag-ishaan-khatter","14":"tag-mixed-faith-household","15":"tag-neelima-azeem","16":"tag-neeraj-ghaywan","17":"tag-pankaj-kapoor","18":"tag-rajesh-khatter","19":"tag-shahid-kapoor","20":"tag-vishal-jethwa","21":"tag-vishal-jethwas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}