Latest news with #SakshiTanwar
Time of India
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Shweta Keswani: For South Asians, making it in the West is always a hustle
Shweta Keswani and (right) with Sakshi Tanwar in a still from Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii Shweta Keswani, known for her roles in TV shows like Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand, and Baa Bahoo Aur Baby, moved to the US after marrying lawyer Ken Andino in 2012. However, relocating didn't stop her from pursuing acting. She embraced the opportunities in the West but admits that the journey has been difficult. Reflecting on her 13-year experience, she says, 'For South Asians, especially those trying to make it here, it's always a hustle. It's taken me 13 years to get to where I am today. Not everyone is lucky enough to have an agent like Priyanka Chopra or to get a quick breakthrough.' The actress, who has been part of projects like The Heart Stays (2019), As Sick As They Made Us (2022), Roar (2022) and The Beanie Bubble (2023), and is currently executive producing and acting in the short film Tabassum, highlights how her acting journey in the US has required a major shift. She shares, 'The acting here is different. If I replicated my style from India, I wouldn't book jobs. So, I've been training in acting under several teachers. People asked, 'Why are you learning acting when you've been acting for 20 years?' But the style of acting and auditioning here is so different,' she explains. As an actor of Asian descent, she often finds herself navigating the challenges of typecasting in the industry. She says, 'It's a hit or miss. Sometimes I get offbeat, interesting auditions, but I'm also offered the usual stereotypes. My typical casting range ends up being an FBI agent, a doctor, a lawyer, a web designer, or the aspirational Indian mom. I try to break out of that box by showcasing my versatility through my demo reel to prove that I'm capable of so much more. ' While she's embraced her new life, she misses the chaotic energy of Hindi TV sets. She reminisces, 'I miss the camaraderie, the Indian-ness of it all — the banter, eating together — those moments were special. The people became family.' Shweta also shares her thoughts on possibly returning to India for work. 'I'd love to do mini-series or short projects for OTT where I can complete the work in 15-20 days and return home. I can't commit to the same monthly grind I did in television because I have a family here now. But I miss acting in Hindi TV shows,' she concludes.
Indian Express
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
The Royals director Priyanka Ghose opens up about Zeenat Aman's smoking scenes: ‘Males writing female parts did not get these small nuances'
Veteran actor Zeenat Aman made headlines for her portrayal of a pot-smoking queen mother in the new Netflix web series The Royals. While some felt she was reduced to a shallow character, others opined that her smoking and drinking scenes with Sakshi Tanwar was about Bollywood finally showcasing its female characters as bold and real. In a recent interview, the show's director Priyanka Ghose opened up about Zeenat's smoking sequences and how actual Bengali women were her inspiration. During a conversation with News18 Showsha, the filmmaker reflected on how projects created by females are shaping characters on screen. She said, 'It's a huge privilege that women who are producers and studio heads are green-lighting stories that allow you to have these kinds of things where women go beyond their dead husbands and explore love affairs once again. And because there are women in power who are not judging women, there has been a sea change in the way women are being represented.' 'For the longest time, women were being misrepresented across films and series. The males writing female parts did not get these small nuances, because at the end of the day, a woman smoking in a scene is not changing anything. It doesn't change the dynamics of the scene, but it gives you an insight into the character. It tells you how bold she is, that society is accepting of her doing this, and how we have progressed, so we are not going backwards anymore. India is looking ahead. We can accept a lot of things,' Priyanka added. ALSO READ | Royal mess: Ishaan Khatter, Bhumi Pednekar's The Royals objectifies, stereotypes, and disappoints Priyanka Ghose spent her childhood in Calcutta, where she never saw women smoking as a taboo. It was only after moving to Mumbai that she realised how often women who smoke are judged by society. 'Bengal was always ahead of its time, and women were always treated with a certain amount of respect. I had grown up watching my aunt and everybody having a good time going to clubs and never being apologetic, because it doesn't define your character, just because you are equally having fun with men around. I'm not frivolously saying this,' she stated. 'All the women in my family are hardcore career women, but they are also the people who run our house, our families, taking care of every single person. It doesn't take away from their matriarchal roles either. There's a great balance with which you can represent women. Wanting to drink or smoke or have multiple relationships or exploring one's sexuality is not seen in a bad light [in the show] because it should not be seen in a bad light. It doesn't define the integrity of the character,' the filmmaker concluded. Besides Zeenat Aman and Sakshi Tanwar, The Royals also featured Bhumi Pednekar, Ishaan Khatter, and Nora Fatehi, among others.
NDTV
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
The Royals Review: Ishaan Khatter's Bare Chest Works Overtime In A Show That Doesn't
New Delhi: Somewhere between a glitzy wedding invite and an overstuffed sherwani lies The Royals, a Netflix drama (directed by Priyanka Ghose and Nupur Asthana) that mistakes opulence for substance and half-buttoned shirts for depth. It arrives with the promise of masala-drenched grandeur, noble dysfunction and a fairy-tale romance between a commoner and a royal, but what unfolds instead is a tedious fashion show with a plotline stitched together by cliches, overused tropes and barely-there chemistry. Think of it as a Barbara Cartland novel rewritten by a social media intern who just discovered the word "situationship." Set in the fictional princely state of Morpur - clearly Rajasthan in spirit, if not in specificity - the series follows Aviraaj "Fizzy" Singh (Ishaan Khatter), a polo-playing, bare-chested royal heir with "daddy issues" and a chronic aversion to buttoned clothing. He returns home for the reading of his father's will, only to find his ancestral home crumbling, his inheritance entangled in family drama, and his mother, Padmaja (Sakshi Tanwar), too busy juggling ex-lovers and royal duties to care. Also thrown into the mix is Sofia Kanmani Shekhar (Bhumi Pednekar), a self-made CEO of a start-up that offers luxury royal experiences to the middle-class masses - a business plan that seems to have been scribbled on a napkin after binge-watching Bridgerton. Their meet-cute is awkward, their banter forced, and their romance, the supposed emotional anchor of the show, is the weakest link. Pednekar, capable of far more textured performances, is saddled with a character who swings from headstrong entrepreneur to helpless mess depending on what the script requires. Khatter, meanwhile, gives it his all-brooding over his family legacy one minute, playing shirtless beach polo the next - but the writing gives him precious little to work with. His most compelling scenes are with his horse, which, frankly, displays more emotional range than most of the ensemble. The supporting characters are introduced with the enthusiasm of a soap opera and the depth of a dating app bio. Fizzy's siblings - Diggy (Vihaan Samat), the closeted chef with aspirations of reality TV stardom and Jinnie (Kavya Trehan), the unsure bisexual flirt - are more interesting on paper than on screen. Sakshi Tanwar's Rani Maa is saddled with uneven writing, swinging between steely matriarch and bewildered has-been. Zeenat Aman, in her much-hyped return as the doped-up grand matriarch Bhagyashree Devi, mostly lounges in ornate outfits and delivers a few acid-dipped lines. Her Instagram posts feel more alive than anything she does here. The production design spares no expense. Palaces gleam, wardrobes overflow with brocade and no meal is eaten without an elaborate tablescape. But the show suffocates under the weight of its own excess. Everyone looks like they've walked out of a fashion editorial - even at breakfast - but the emotions remain locked behind layers of leheriya and lip gloss. It's all style, very little soul. The show's attempts at modernity - queer characters, women-led businesses, influencer culture - feel more like box-checking than thoughtful inclusions. The script, written by Neha Veena Sharma, Vishnu Sinha and Iti Agarwal, has moments of sly satire, but they are few and far between. Too often, characters speak in buzzwords that belong in pitch meetings, not conversations. When someone shouts, "Do 'Gram the hell out of us," it feels less like dialogue and more like a promotional brief. To be fair, The Royals isn't trying to be a serious exploration of monarchy or class. It wants to be frothy, flirty, and bingeable. But froth only works when there's something underneath it, and here, the plot is as threadbare as a palace curtain after monsoon season. The sibling dynamics have fleeting moments of warmth, particularly in the later episodes, but by then, it's a little too late and a lot too dull. In the end, The Royals is a textbook case of what happens when a show confuses aesthetics for storytelling. It has its moments - Vihaan Samat brings some tenderness, Dino Morea is clearly having a ball - but they are quickly drowned in a sea of bland montages, predictable twists and insipid romances. Like Fizzy himself, the show looks good in motion, but says very little when it finally stops posing. Two stars - for the horse, the palace and one particularly sassy dinner table insult. Everything else? Lost in royal translation.
India Today
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Why Netflix is betting big on ‘The Royals'
India's OTT space has been starved of love stories, with good ones a particularly rare sighting. It's why at the trailer launch day of The Royals that Tanya Bami, series head of Netflix India, remarked: 'We aren't seeing many love stories these days. We had to really bring a love story to the platform.'Enter Netflix's 'modern day royal romcom' The Royals—created by Ishita and Rangita Pritish Nandy, written by Neha Veena Sharma and directed by Nupur Asthana and Priyanka Ghosh—which seeks to fill the void by evoking desi Bridgerton vibes albeit in a contemporary Royals sticks to the classic 'opposites attract' formula of the genre. Aviraaj Singh (Ishaan Khatter) is the prince charming of Morpur while Bhumi Pednekar is the commoner who enters the royal turf as a feisty entrepreneur. Expectedly, sparks fly, egos clash and banter ensues. 'Remember how you never want the good one but always chase after the one you know is trouble; that's The Royals for you,' said the in Rajasthan and with an ensemble that includes Zeenat Aman, Sakshi Tanwar, Dino Morea, Vihaan Samat, Sumukhi Suresh, Lisa Mishra, Kavya Trehan, Udit Arora, Nora Fatehi and Chunky Panday, Netflix and Nandy sisters, at first glance, are aiming to woo the romcom-loving crowd. Think Jane Austen worshippers. 'I got very greedy when it came to the actors, and it didn't hurt that Netflix pushed my greed not with deep pockets but just by wanting this fabulous cast as much as I wanted itNetflix allowed us to run and have fun,' said Rangita Nandy, whose banner Pritish Nandy Communications collaborates with the streaming giant for the first time after delivering a hit with Amazon Prime in Four More Shots Please. 'I have always been a girl obsessed with romance, so when we had this opportunity to work together, we thought of a romance,' she it a subversion of the genre by looking 'at fading royalty', the makers have thrown in all the tropes—dapper men dressed in regal gear and women adorned in jewels, choicest of saris and gowns and lavish setting. At least one cast member admitted at being in awe of the extravagance on display.'For the longest time, I've played characters on the other side of the royal table,' said Sakshi Tanwar, the royal matriarch best known for TV dramas Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and Bade Achhe Lagte Hain. 'I've always been an Aamkumari (term used in show for commoner)—grounded, relatable, just like the life I come from. So stepping into the shoes of Rani Maa felt unreal at first.'In terms of splendour and scale, Heeramandi is still the Netflix original to beat, but The Royals comes close with its palatial backdrop and savvy sartorial quotient. 'The most beautiful thing about The Royals is that it takes classic royalty and intersects with modern-day royalty,' says further promised that the show has all the essential ingredients of the genre, namely 'charm, humour, heart, chemistry'. The Nandy sisters added there'd also be 'a whole lot of fire'.Whether The Royals will click will be known only after May 9, but for now at least, the streaming audience gets a breather from the crime dramas with a frothy-light-romcom to look forward to India Today MagazineMust Watch
News18
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Shahid Kapoor Is ‘Loving' Ishaan Khatter's The Royals Trailer; Mira Rajput Says 'Can't Wait' To Watch
The Royals trailer has finally been released, and it looks like it has impressed everyone. The modern-day Indian royal rom-com also stars Zeenat Aman, Sakshi Tanwar, Nora Fatehi, and others. Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput also gave a shout-out to Ishaan Khatter's upcoming TV series. The show will premiere on Netflix on May 9. Taking to his Instagram stories, Shahid shared the trailer, wrote 'Loving it" and congratulated the whole team. Mira also wrote, 'Yahgan koi sasti pratha hai hi nahi. Love it. Can't wait for this summer watch," and tagged Ishaan, Bhumi, and Zeenat Aman on the post. Directed by Priyanka Ghose and Nupur Asthana, written by Neha Veena Sharma, and produced under the banner of Pritish Nandy Communications, The Royals is created by Rangita Pritish Nandy and Ishita Pritish Nandy.
