Janhvi Kapoor ‘made of something else’: Homebound movie director Neeraj Ghaywan showers praise on the star kid

Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound is the only Indian feature film at Cannes 2025. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section and received a 9-minute standing ovation. Neeraj Ghaywan’s debut movie, Masaan, is still considered one of the finest movies ever made in Bollywood. Martin Scorsese mentored him for the movie.

As the audience showed great love for the film, producer Karan Johar hugged the emotional director. Actors Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor and Vishal Jethwa were all smiles as they joined the crew in celebrating the moment.

Now, Neeraj Ghaywan has spoken about casting “star kids” Janhvi and Ishaan, who are coming together after their debut movie, Dhadak, also produced by Karan Johar.

The interesting part is the actors who have a “privileged” background are doing a movie about the marginalised section of Indian society.

Karan Johar praised Ishaan Khatter for his versatility, calling him a “chameleon”. According to him, Ishaan can look like a charming star in The Royals on Netflix and also give a powerful emotional performance in Homebound.

Johar added that Janhvi Kapoor had also gone through a big change during the film.

Director Ghaywan also spoke about Janhvi facing public pressure. She started questioning her privilege while prepping for the movie.

“She’s been maligned publicly and heavily trolled, but when people see this film and her true potential, they’ll wake up to see she’s really made of something else,” the director told Variety.

“I gave her Ambedkar’s ‘Annihilation of Caste’ to read, and she went into a rabbit hole of trying to understand the glaring differences that we live with together,” he added.

Neeraj Ghaywan deeply prepared for his film by taking the actors to live in villages. He believes, that while filmmakers can’t fully capture someone’s real life, they can try to understand and respect it.

Janhvi Kapoor's ‘therapy’

During one visit to a poor man’s home, Ghaywan felt humbled, “I felt like, what is the point of all of this? Because this moment is so special that me making a film is so insignificant compared to this amazing life unfolding in front of me.”

According to Karan Johar, Janhvi Kapoor described her experience as like going through therapy and said it had helped her heal personally.

“Janhvi felt she was in 10 days of therapy with Neeraj, and she felt healed as a result. Even now, she says those seven or eight days spent on the sets of Homebound will be her best days spent on a film set. She felt she wasn’t really acting but going through some sort of personal catharsis,” Karan Johar told the publication.