The Royals Review: Ishaan Khatter, Bhumi Pednekar Rom-Com Rides High On Hot Mess, Haute Couture, Feminism

News18

09-05-2025

Last Updated:
The Royals is as much about substance as style. It's self-indulgent, screams maximalism and will hopefully herald the beginning of our very own Bridgerton and Emily In Paris era.
The Royals Web Series Review: That Netflix decided to sanction, back and release a romantic-comedy series feels like a victory in itself. In a world where gloom, gore and gunpowder are being packed and tied with a bow and brought to us every other week religiously, The Royals feels like long-awaited joy. It's self-indulgent, screams maximalism and is absolutely delightful. Let's face it, times are tough, life is tough, and sometimes, it's blissful to just be able to let your hair down and blow some steam. And anyway, we've been starved for a feel-good rom-com. So, hopefully, The Royals will herald the beginning of our own Bridgerton and Emily In Paris era.
The Royals opens with a meet-cute moment between Sophia Kanmani Shekhar and Aviraaj Singh and you immediately know that this is going to be a tale as old as time where opposites attract and turn from rivals to lovers. Sophia, the CEO of India's best hospitality start-up called WorkPotato, is in Sri Lanka to accept the Best Entrepreneur award. While on her morning run on Bentota beach, she bumps into 'VIP' Aviraaj who's being filmed for a magazine cover. This brief encounter filled with silences is too hard to miss as the moment drips with sexual tension between them.
Later that night, they again bump at a bar. Following a quick exchange of repartees, sparks fly and they decide to spend the night together. However, it soon turns into a war of words where Sophia throws words like 'privileged' and 'spoilt brat' at him and he hurls 'foolish' and 'arrogant' at her. Eventually, we learn that Sophia is on a mission to turn her dream IP called 'The Royal B&B' into reality and she looks for palaces in Rajasthan that would give her the permission to revamp them into heritage stays.
During this mission, she chances upon Motibag Palace in Morpur. Thrown into this mix is Kunal, the co-founder of WorkPotato, who also happens to be Sophia's ex-boyfriend; Niki, the chief designer; and Keertana, Sophia's assistant. The Royal B&B is a make-or-break for the team as their chief investor, Zubin Daruvala, throws a gauntlet that if they aren't able to successfully complete their project in the next six months, Sophia will have to quit as according to him, the board is running losses.
During their visit to Morpur, Sophia learns that Aviraaj is the prince of Motibag Palace. On the other hand, Maharani Padmaja, fondly known as Paddy, immediately agrees to this revamp project as it's revealed that the family is on the brink of bankruptcy after the death of her husband, Maharaja Yuvanath Singh. This also means that the baton will now be passed on to Aviraaj aka Fizzy to become the next king, a feat he isn't too pleased about. But what shocks them is that the late Maharaja has left his monetary assets to someone called Maurice.
We're also introduced to Fizzy's siblings – Digvijay Singh aka Diggy and Divyaranjani Singh aka Jinnie. Their grandmother is Rajmata Bhagyashri aka Maaji played by the timeless Zeenat Aman. And this is the one bone to pick with the makers of The Royals. She has the most under-cooked character, is absent from the scene most of the times and doesn't get to render anything substantial to the narrative. She's introduced as a Gen-Z-esque, cool granny who explains the meaning of a 'situationship' to Paddy, urges her to smoke a joint and roots for her romantic escapades.
But she could've been so much more. Instead, she gets relegated to the background and it almost feels her absence from the overall plot wouldn't have made much of a difference. However, what's striking and noteworthy is that this is a series made by a team of women. The Royals is directed by Priyanka Ghose and Nupur Asthana, developed by Neha Sharma and produced by Ishita Pritish Nandy and Rangita Pritish Nandy. So, needless to say, the series boasts of a bunch of strong and empowered women characters, whose vulnerabilities aren't their weaknesses, and thankfully, not conceived through a lens of judgement.
Most of the male characters are fine too. Aviraaj may be a Casanova but disrespecting women isn't a part of his deal. He's chivalrous and so is the Nawab of Alsipur, Salaluddin Khan aka Salad. Even Diggy doesn't wear his royalty with arrogance. His biggest ambition is to not let his royal lineage define him and find an individual identity for himself as a chef. So, even when a commoner shows him his place at a cooking competition, he doesn't take it to heart. In a way, the makers of The Royals beautifully and sensitively bust the myths surrounding royal families.
They also treat queerness with a lot of nuance as opposed to incorporating it as a theme or a trope in the series. Here, a person's identity is rarely defined by the gender they belong to and that's refreshing to say the least. Paddy, despite being the Maharani, isn't afraid to embrace her libido or look for love as a widow in a Bollywood superstar named Ranjit Shroff. And yet when the time comes, she chooses self-love before getting into a new romantic relationship.
The Royals also capture the messiness and chaotic nature of relationships with aplomb. Aviraaj's complicated bond with his late father, his unwillingness to be a part of the 'raaj tilak' ceremony as it will tie him up in metaphorical fetters that will not let him pursue his own desires, not feeling threatened by women with agency and standing up for Sophia – the 'aam kumari' he's in love with – before princess Ayesha Dhondi, are delicately portrayed. At the same time, he isn't robbed of humane qualities. He's flawed and pulls away from Sophia every time something goes wrong in his family life, but that doesn't make him a red flag.
Sophia's confusion between Kunal and Aviraaj is also portrayed through a lens of modernity, never once making the viewer judgmental of her choices and sexual instincts. To top that, the background score and the music perfectly amp up the drama in the screenplay. It's modern, vibrant, new-age. The recreation of Tu Tu Hai Wahi deserves a special mention. The makers present to us a Romeo & Juliet ball and indulge in a fashion-show auction where each character carries off regal, traditional attire with modern flamboyance with pizzazz and panache. And that's exactly what The Royals can be summed up as.
The series is flashy, visually stunning and has a melodramatic flair that has an aspirational, desirable and envious quality to it. And yet, it's not all about style, hourglass physiques and washboard abs and no substance. If you scratch the surface, you'll find a story of a family where everything that glitters isn't gold and where ambitions to break free from norms still thrive. But all of that doesn't dim Sophia's struggles either. Here's an enterprising woman who lost her parents and is trying to make a name for herself in a world that doesn't believe in women.
The screenplay is further elevated by some strong performances by Bhumi Pednekar, Ishaan Khatter, Sakshi Tanwar, Chunky Panday, Dino Morea, Vihaan Samat, Kavya Trehan, Lisa Ray, Sumukhi Suresh and Udit Arora. Nora Fatehi as Ayesha Dhondi is a revelation. As an ambitious princess who believes that she can nudge Ishaan's Aviraaj to join her hospitality business and make him shift base to New York City, she aces the part. There's so much more to Nora underneath the dancing star that she is. The Royals is a fitting take on legacy, power and family, and we can't wait for the second season!
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