Title: The Royals
Directors: Priyanka Ghose, Nupur Asthana
Cast: Ishaan Khatter, Bhumi Pednekar, Zeenat Aman, Jagdish Rajpurohit, Sakshi Tanwar, Kavya Trehan, Vihaan Samat, Nora Fatehi
Where: Streaming on Netflix
Rating: 3 Stars
If opulence had a laugh track and heirloom drama came with cocktail hour, The Royals would be the unruly offspring of that unholy union. This series sashays into our screens with silk-swathed swagger, introducing us to the royal family of Morpur—more Downton Abbey on tequila than Mughal-e-Azam. At its heart, it’s a breezy rom-com gilded in palace intrigue, polo ponies, and a cast that collectively seems to have raided every Jaipur wedding wardrobe in existence.
Front and centre is Ishaan Khatter, who channels the spirit of a party prince reluctantly shoved onto the throne. He plays Aviraaj Singh—Fizzy to friends and foes alike—a polo-playing, champagne-swigging royal with the emotional depth of a shallow Instagram reel, who is nonetheless impossible to dislike. Khatter brings just the right amount of charisma and chaos to keep the story from toppling under its gilt-edged grandeur. His chemistry with Bhumi Pednekar’s Sophia Shekhar, a flinty entrepreneur whose only tiara is her razor-sharp ambition, makes for an electric clash of sensibilities. Together, there are enough smouldering moments to warrant a fire drill.
The premise is classic opposites-attract fodder. He needs money to save Moti Bagh Palace, the family’s ancestral pile, crumbling faster than royal marriages; she needs validation (and investment capital) to keep her luxury Royal B&B brand from tanking. What unfolds is a heady swirl of romance, dysfunction, and deliciously petty power struggles, seasoned with enough pageantry to give The Crown a nosebleed.
The supporting cast is an embarrassment of riches—some more embarrassingly rich than others. Zeenat Aman returns in regal form, though saddled with a character more decorative than dynamic. Chunky Pandey is the washed-up filmmaker sniffing around for relevance, while Sakshi Tanwar and Aly Khan lurk in brocade-heavy corners, offering exposition and the occasional cryptic stare. The younger actors—Vihaan Samat and Kavya Trehan as Fizzy’s siblings—are refreshingly grounded, offering charming performances without being cartoonish.
That said, the series has the attention span of a hummingbird. Tonally, it's a bit of a whiplash—one moment we’re in a misty flashback of paternal regret, the next we’re at a cooking contest named Gastronautics. Episode 3, particularly during its interminable polo montage, proves that not every scene involving horses needs to gallop at a snail's pace.
Visually, it’s all very hello, tourism board!—With sweeping palace shots, chandeliers in the right spot, and so much luxury excess, it’s a miracle the plot doesn’t slip and fall. And yet, beneath the glossy surface lies a surprisingly warm tale of legacy, self-worth, and the uncomfortable business of growing up when everyone’s watching.
The Royals may not reinvent the rom-com wheel, but it certainly bedazzles it. In a world increasingly cynical about love and loyalty, this is frothy, fizzy escapism at its most decadent—slightly absurd, occasionally poignant, and always dressed to the nines.
