‘The Royals’ Season 1 Review: Bhumi Pednekar and Ishaan Khatter’s Ensemble Netflix Series Is a Royal Bore (LatestLY Exclusive)
The Royals Season 1 Review: When the first teaser of Netflix’s new Hindi series The Royals dropped, I assumed it was meant to be India’s answer to Crazy Rich Asians, albeit in show format. But the trailer quickly proved me wrong, and the show itself turned out to be something else entirely – except for the part where it’s a love story between a super-rich heir and a ‘commoner’ girl. Although, in The Royals, the hero is a literal royal prince and the heroine, despite the ‘commoner’ tag, is a businesswoman with crores in turnover. ‘The Royals’: Bhumi Pednekar and Ishaan Khatter’s Star-Studded Netflix Series to Stream From THIS Date.
Directed by Priyanka Ghose and Nupur Asthana (whose Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge remains one of the most underrated romcoms in Bollywood), The Royals centres on Sophia (Bhumi Pednekar), an entrepreneur running a hospitality company called Work Potato (yes, the show jokes about the name… but still, why?). She plans a venture that lets a ‘common’ person live like royalty – staying in palaces, mingling with blue-blooded hosts. By ‘common’, they clearly mean the financially rich who lack royal lineage – not folks like us, who have to plan six months ahead for a weekend trip to Lonavla.
Watch the Trailer of ‘The Royals’:
Anyway, Sophia meets and nearly hooks up with Aviraaj (Ishaan Khatter) in Sri Lanka. She knows he’s a VIP, but not quite how VIP. Turns out, Aviraaj is the eldest son of Queen Padmaja (Sakshi Tanwar) and heir to the princely state of Morpur. His father (Milind Soman, present in the flashbacks to look stately while doling out sage advice to his young son) passed away, leaving behind opulent properties – and even more massive debts. Oh, and a mystery: he’s left a fortune (enough to wipe out all the family’s loans) to someone named ‘Maurice’. Not only is that a jerk move, but the show also treats this ‘Maurice’ subplot as a mystery – one that gets forgotten for six whole episodes – though it’s pretty obvious where it’s heading. We’ve seen enough Indian urban-rich dramas to guess how this is going to pan out.
Sophia needs a palace (and its inhabitants) for her Royal B&B idea – which she’s pressured to launch within six months. Aviraaj needs money to keep his family from being evicted. So their paths cross again, leading to sparks, fights, more sparks, more fights… and so on.
‘The Royals’ Season 1 Review – No Chemisty, No Charm
As I said earlier, I’d hoped this would be a Crazy Rich Asians-style adaptation. It’s not, and I wish it were – because at least then, the show might have retained some of the charm and flair of that film. While The Royals is presumably ‘original’, there’s nothing particularly fresh or bold about it. It goes round in circles, seemingly to fill Netflix’s obligatory eight-episode arc, only to end on a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger, mind you, for a storyline that should’ve been part of Season 1 – because that plot was more intriguing than most of what we got.
A Still From The Royals
The show starts off on a grating note by portraying Sophia in an unlikable light. She’s supposed to be the audience’s POV into the crumbling Morpur dynasty, but she comes across as ruder than the royals themselves. She flips Aviraaj off on horseback for no reason, then scolds him and his friends for being too loud – at a bar, while she’s on a video call. A bar! Still, they hook up, only to break up instantly over a reason so random I still can’t explain it.
Unfortunately, the show has them repeating this pattern: they meet, they glare, they scheme, they feel attraction, and then they fight – calling each other names based on their social status. She calls him a spoilt brat; he calls her foolish. Honestly, they’re both entitled idiots (and I say that as politely as possible). It’s hard to root for their romance when it’s all about hookups, breakups, and bouts of jealousy when they sleep with other people. It doesn’t help that Ishaan Khatter and Bhumi Pednekar lack chemistry, despite their many makeout scenes – a contrast made even starker when Ishaan briefly shares screen space with Nora Fatehi, who sizzles in her all-too-brief appearance (for what is desirable).
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Outside the central romance, the show also spends time on Sophia’s publicity stunts using the royal family to boost her venture – think polo matches, ballroom galas, and eventually a fashion show. While these sequences offer plenty of wardrobe envy (and shirtless Ishaan moments), they’re juvenile in concept and execution.
A Still From The Royals
You wonder how Sophia and her business partner Kunal (Udit Arora) built such a profitable company with these hare-brained ideas. They should start judging Shark Tank, honestly. Also – yes – Kunal is her ex, and they still have leftover feelings (and the occasional hookup), because this show clearly needed more messy romantic entanglements.
‘The Royals’ Season 1 Review – Royal Family Antics
What I did enjoy, somewhat, were the scenes featuring the Morpur family interacting with each other. Their quirky personalities and utter detachment from reality are amusing, especially when Aviraaj discovers the absurd monthly bills required to run their estate and attempts to cut costs. These moments allow the cast to bounce off one another and hint at a sharper, more satirical series (like that brief scene where a random character tells Padmaja that she loves The Crown) – one that’s ultimately diluted by the main lust… sorry, love track. ‘The Royals’ Song ‘Tu Tu Hai Wohi’ Teaser: Ishaan Khatter and Bhumi Pednekar Bring Retro Vibes to Their Romance With This Recreated Track.
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Even the supporting characters are wasted on undercooked subplots. Queen Padmaja’s situationships – with an ageing Bollywood star (Chunky Pandey, little restrained but still in his elements) and a fellow royal (Alyy Khan) – are interesting on paper. Sakshi Tanwar brings elegance and warmth to the role, but this subplot of hers is let down by lazy writing that lacks the emotional maturity they needed.
Vihaan Samat gets a few laughs as a prince with a culinary obsession who wants to be taken seriously – but he ends up in a cooking reality show subplot that feels like it belongs in a different (and promptly cancelled) series. And honestly, does every show casting a hyper-dedicated contestant have Yashaswini Dayama on speed dial?
Kavya Trehan is charming as the cherubic, confused princess, but her lesbian romance with Niki (Lisa Mishra), Sophia’s colleague, feels more like a box-ticking exercise for LGBTQ+ representation than a well-developed storyline. Most frustrating of all is the minimal screentime given to the most entertaining royal of the lot – Zeenat Aman’s weed-loving Rani-sa, whose one-liners and casual takedowns were exactly what the show needed more of.
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Also – can we talk about the royal nicknames? Diggy, Jinnie, Ziggy, Pickles… and even Dino Morea, in a cameo as a playboy prince, is nicknamed Salad. Is this show part of some Dharmatic Universe? Is Poo handing out nicknames now?
As for the leads, both Ishaan Khatter and Bhumi Pednekar do what they can, though the writing doesn’t help endear them to us. Khatter, a genuinely talented actor, is frequently reduced to shirtless eye candy – as if the show is more interested in his abs than his acting.
A Still From The Royals
At the very least, The Royals is royally shot. The palatial settings are gorgeously lit, and the wardrobe deserves credit for its opulence. But all the grandeur can’t mask the mess beneath.
‘The Royals’ Season 1 Review – Final Thoughts
The Royals is all sparkle and no soul – a show that tries to dazzle with palaces, opulence, and pretty people in eye-dazzling costumes, but forgets to give us characters to care about or a plot worth following. It mistakes sizzle for charm and dazzle for depth, leaving us with a series that’s neither clever enough to be satire nor swoony enough to be a guilty pleasure. The Royals is streaming on Netflix.
(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of Today News 24.)
(The above story first appeared on Today News 24 on May 10, 2025 12:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website todaynews24.top).
