‘We Got In’: Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor, Vishal Jethwa on the Magic of Cannes and The Mastery of Neeraj Ghaywan

For the young cast of Homebound — Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor and Vishal Jethwa — the moment their film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section was anything but ordinary. Each of them remembers exactly where they were when the news broke.

Vishal Jethwa was heading to the gym when director Neeraj Ghaywan called. He skipped his workout, rushed home, and told his mother. “She started crying. She doesn’t know what Cannes is, but everyone was happy that Vishal got a job!” Jethwa said.

Janhvi Kapoor, meanwhile, had been managing her expectations. “I thought the reward was the fact that we made the film,” she said. When she finally got the call late at night during a get-together, it took a moment to register. “We got accepted into this category that I can't pronounce for the life of me... Uncertain. I took French in school!” she laughed. “I jumped on someone and screamed. And then it got very technical very quickly. I'm still processing it..”

For Ishaan Khatter, it was a moment of suspense. “He (Neeraj) called me around 10 p.m. I locked myself inside a room as I had people at home, and was like, ‘Tell me, Neeraj. What’s up?’”

When the news came, his reaction was immediate. “From the perspective of the people in my hall, they just heard a scream from inside the bedroom," Khatter recalls.

Now walking the Croisette in real-time, the cast is still soaking it in. As Kapoor put it, “It felt real when the storm broke out. I felt the raindrops on my face. I was like, oh, so I am here. And it is happening.”

But the road to that moment was paved with immersion. For Ghaywan, it wasn’t enough that his leads were good actors, he needed them to become the characters. The process, by all accounts, was rigorous, intimate, and transformative.

“It started from the get-go with Neeraj literally hand-holding,” said Khatter. “There are some directors that hire an actor as a professional and expect you to bring your prep. Neeraj will walk hand-in-hand, shoulder-to-shoulder with you the whole way. In many ways, he reminded me of working with Mr. Majid Majidi. He’s a master. Very, very involved with every single detail.”

Kapoor described it as a rare experience of complete support and respect. “More often than not, as actors, you feel like you have to put a performance out despite the variables: losing light, hair and makeup tugging at you, ADs clapping in your face... On this set, it wasn’t despite anything. It was as a result of... supported by Neeraj sir and the kind of set he runs. There was such inclusion, such ownership of the material. It was just the best environment to be in.”

For Jethwa, the process was one of surrender. “When I started my career, I met Aditya Chopra sir. He gave me this guru mantra : Surrender yourself to the director. I’ve been following it ever since. I trusted Neeraj sir completely," says Jethwa.

Ghaywan has a unique practice on set— something the team calls Code 360. It’s a code of conduct that aligns the energy of the entire crew with the emotional tenor of a scene, creating stillness around the actor’s performance.

“There is Code 360. This is an actor’s set,” said Jethwa. “We don’t get a set like this every time. The way we speak, the environment — everything is adjusted to support the performance. If the scene is funny or emotional, as soon as Code 360 is applied, everyone matches that energy. I haven’t seen it anywhere else. On some sets, when you're trying to do a really emotional scene and there’s chaos around you, it becomes very tough. But here, the craft was completely connected. You could feel it.”

That ethos is what shaped the performances in Homebound. And now, those performances have carried the film to one of cinema’s most revered festivals.