The ‘New’ Royals: Bhumi Pednekar & Ishaan Khatter ooze regality in this brand new show!

They are Bollywood’s new royalty — no doubt about it! Just a glimpse of the teaser or trailer for Netflix’s latest romantic comedy-drama series The Royals is enough to leave anyone breathless. Bhumi Pednekar and Ishaan Khatter have emerged as the new poster stars of the moment and audiences simply can’t get enough. Bhumi, known for her powerful performances in Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), Badhaai Do (2022) and Bhakshak (2024), has firmly established herself as one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema. In The Royals, she takes on a glamorous role like never before.

Complementing her charm is Bollywood’s current heartthrob, Ishaan Khatter. With credits including Dhadak (2018), the BBC miniseries A Suitable Boy (2020) and the sultry The Perfect Couple (2024), Ishaan finally steps into a well-deserved Prince Charming role in this series. Premiering today, The Royals also boasts an impressive ensemble cast featuring Sakshi Tanwar, Zeenat Aman, Dino Morea, Milind Soman and fan-favourite Sumukhi Suresh. The series is directed by Priyanka Ghose and Nupur Asthana, both known for their nuanced storytelling and stylish execution. We catch up with Bhumi and Ishaan ahead of the show’s release for a quick chat. From behind-the-scenes anecdotes to their thoughts on playing royalty, the conversation reveals exciting insights into this much-anticipated series — and gives us even more reason to tune in.

Let’s begin right where we should — tell us about the characters essayed by the both of you?

Ishaan Khatter: I’m essaying the role of a young royal by the name of Aviraaj Singh, who is the heir to the throne of Morpur, which is a fictional place that we’ve created. He’s one of three siblings. He’s the oldest and he’s kind of doing his best to avoid this responsibility as best he can. As you go forward in the show, you realise that he has certain emotional reasons and complexities because of which he wants to stay far away from this position and responsibility. Early on in the show, he has a lot of painful interactions with somebody that is from outside of his universe — Sophia (essayed by Bhumi Pednekar) and the story kicks off from there. There’s a cat and dog relationship between the two and the rest of the narrative is about how their fates intertwine. They cannot function or move forward in this phase of their lives without each other, but also have almost become sworn enemies, who eventually become lovers.

Bhumi Pednekar: I essay the role of Sophia Shekhar. She’s a CEO. She’s a woman in a man’s world, completely self-made. She’s ambitious. She has a lot of drive. She has a lot of courage. She’s very brave. But something that she does shy away from is love. She doesn’t want to mix her personal and professional life, but life has other plans for her. She bumps into Aviraaj. What starts off as something that should have gone right goes really, really wrong. Their lives are completely intertwined. They are very dependent on each other and as Ishaan very rightly said, our arc is going from enemies to lovers. What’s really beautiful about Sophia is that she’s full of hope. She’s a fighter. She’s a problem solver. She’s somebody who’s always taken on incredible amounts of responsibility, not just for herself, but for everybody that’s a part of her life — which to me is really beautiful, because that was the part of her that I really resonated with. She’s a nurturer.

Ishaan, did you always want to play a prince?

I think a caveat coming into this profession is that you have to be ready for anything and that was also my desire, I’m an eternal adventurist. I was super happy to take up the challenge. That said, it’s not like I grew up thinking I want to play a prince someday. It’s not been like a childhood dream or anything like that. But, I think it is something that every kid has role played at some point — there is a fantastical dreamy element to it. Hopefully, you’ll get to see a fresh take, a modern satire on royals.

And Bhumi, what did you think as an outsider of a royal family stuck in this day and age, with titles that have no value?

That’s a loaded question. I feel like even though they don’t hold that title, there’s still a lot of love and respect that comes their way. We actually shot with the actual royal family around us and the love that they get from the people around them is quite incredible. I also feel from my personal experience that they try and work very hard towards bringing culture to the forefront, staying with rituals and celebrating them — which is very, very refreshing, especially in a world that’s getting globalised so fast.

Ishaan, you look fantastic in this series — a hot Prince Charming for sure! What went into getting this look and role right?

I’m a dancer, so I’ve always been a mover and I train because I love it and it’s a lifestyle. But they kind of really needed me to push it on this one and I enjoyed doing that. I also think this came to me at the right time in my life. I’ve just started exploring fashion in a way that I haven’t before and that’s something that definitely aided this character as it was a big part of who he is. He is a model. He’s not just a prince. You’re going to see copious amounts of me shirtless. But what was cool about it was the way that it was written, it’s just the skin of the character. He’s just a fit guy. He’s quite a Mills & Boons prince character with a bit of a twist. Beyond that, physically, this was definitely the silhouette that they needed — they needed a dreamy, fantasy boy; so that definitely was quite a lot of hard work. Horse riding was also something that I picked up for the role and I now absolutely enjoy it.

Bhumi, you’ve never looked fitter and this role sees you glammed up and how! Tell us about your preparations for the role?

So, for me, like with my first film, when I went through a journey of gaining a lot of weight for my character; I’ve always attempted to physically transform myself and I’ve done exactly that for The Royals as well. I read the script, maybe in October or November 2023 and I took it up as a challenge because I was like: okay, this character gives me a lot of fodder to again physically transform myself. I’ve never been this fit. I can proudly say this is the fittest that I’ve ever been. I’m a very, very strong girl today and a lot of that motivation came from Sophia. She’s somebody who’s anxious and she’s worked on a lot of her anxiety to channel it into a lot of physical work that she puts into herself. She’s a runner, there are snippets of that you see in the trailer as well. I wanted to imbibe all of that into a physical being as well, which I did. I can now proudly say that I’ve covered the spectrum. It was definitely a lot of work for me because I’ve never done a part like this. I’ve also never done something where I’ve been complimented on the way I look on screen. That’s a first for me in every way and it’s fun and refreshing.

Finally, what can we look forward to from the both of you next?

Bhumi: I have another show with Netflix that will be out in the latter half of the year and I have a couple of film releases as well.

Ishaan: I’ll actually be travelling to Cannes next month. I shot a film with Neeraj Ghaywan, the wonderful director of Masaan, Made in Heaven, etc. He took three years to write this project, Homebound. It’s a very, very special film. It’s produced by Karan Johar and Dharma Productions and executive produced by Martin Scorsese. We’ll be at Cannes next month representing India. So, yes, wish us luck. Hopefully we will make the country proud!

The Royals releases today on Netflix.

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