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HomeOpinionIshaan Khatter is officially the Milind Soman of the 21st century

Ishaan Khatter is officially the Milind Soman of the 21st century

The actor has both a good physique and acting prowess. He impressed audiences with his performance in A Suitable Boy (2020), making love look giddy and poetic all at once.

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A shirtless Ishaan Khatter in Netflix’s The Royals has made Indian women swoon and reach for some chilled water with his hotness. He is everywhere, or rather his shirtless pictures are everywhere. Khatter is now officially the Milind Soman of Gen Z. Absolutely no one has any complaints about the young actor taking off his shirt for questionable reasons: playing polo, or just riding his horse. Because the glistening six-pack abs are the stuff of dreams.

Khatter without an upper-body garment is the sole saving grace of the show. Everything and everyone else melts away when he takes off his shirt. This phenomenon occurred for the first time three decades ago when Milind Soman emerged from a wooden box in just a white dhoti in Alisha Chinoy’s Made in India music video. Despite being an age of near-zero internet and patchy cable TV in India, a whole generation of women fell for Soman. They swooned, and prayed for the song to appear the next time they switched on the television, just to get a glimpse of his Greek god physique. The year was 1995, and Soman has reigned supreme ever since. Now, Gen Z women can finally relate to that, with Khatter.

With Soman being the zaddy, we had almost lost hope of anyone qualifying for the Gen Z. Now the throne has an able contender – the younger sibling of Shahid Kapoor. It is not that others have not tried before–even Ranveer Singh’s abs had their moment in Ram-Leela (2013) and his 2022 nude photoshoot. Call it fate, timing or a very strategic PR machinery, but Khatter, with his boyish charm and chiselled chest, is here to stay.


Also read: How Sabyasachi has presented India at Met Gala over the years. Alia Bhatt to SRK


A slow-burn

Soman started his modelling career in 1989 and rose to prominence in the 1990s. The year 1995 was significant for both Soman and millennials as the model captivated women with his appearance on the TV show A Mouthful of Sky, which marked his acting debut. The same year, he sparked controversy with his Tuff shoes ad, paired alongside model Madhu Sapre. He was everywhere–from magazines to news headlines.

In the ad, Sapre and Soman look intensely into the camera, while sharing a half-embrace. A python is lounging casually on Soman’s neck with not a single shred of clothing worn by the duo. They do have Tuff sneakers adorning their feet.

The meltdown was iconic.

The term NSFW wasn’t even around in popular lingo back then, and yet it was a ‘not safe for work’ ad that had everyone offended—women’s rights organisations to political parties and animal rights activists. But that only fanned the fire of desire for Soman brighter. 

While Soman showed his hand all at once, Khatter has been a slow-burn. As the popular catchphrase goes, ‘understand the chronology’. The actor has both a good physique and acting prowess. He impressed audiences with his performance in Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy (2020). Starring opposite the ethereal Tabu, he made love look giddy and poetic all at once.

It was in 2024 when the murder mystery The Perfect Couple dropped, and the audience had a voyeuristic glimpse of Amelia (Eve Hewson) watching Shooter (Khatter) come out of the swimming pool. That made everyone sit up and take notice of the other offerings of the actor.

Right after that, Khatter appeared with his abs half-covered with dry soil on the cover of The Dirty Magazine, with another picture inside that could be the real reason for global warming—Khatter in a pair of Calvin Klein boxers and wrapped in a wet white cloth, with light accentuating his toned torso.

He hit a hat-trick with his latest role as Prince Aviraaj Singh in The Royals. In the show, Soman plays his father who passes the mantle to Khatter’s character, and now the same has happened off-screen too. We have a worthy successor to Soman, and he is just getting warmed up. 

Views are personal.

(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)

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2 COMMENTS

  1. The print can do without such lecherous articles. The editors should ask themselves whether they would be comfortable publishing an article by a male journalist objectifying the physique of a nubile actress. There are few decent news sources left in India and the print should not write themselves off the list with such lascivious and titillating trash.

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