Ishaan Khatter-Bhumi Pednekar's The Royals offends real-life royalty, here's why
The Royals has sparked a fiery backlash from Indian heritage advocates, with one platform slamming the show; here's what they're saying
Netflix’s new drama The Royals has been generating buzz across social media, for all the right and wrong reasons. From Ishaan Khatter carrying the show on his abs, to a melodramatic, unrealistic and rather weak plot, and the glaring underuse of the legendary Zeenat Aman, the show has left audiences both dazzled and deeply frustrated. But while viewers might be divided on its entertainment value, one group has something stronger to say.
Anshu Khanna, founder of The Royal Fables — a platform that celebrates the culture and craft of princely India — took to Instagram with a sharply worded open letter addressed to Netflix. She criticised the show for what she sees as a “sweeping misrepresentation” of Indian royal families. The statement, posted publicly on The Royal Fables’ account, opened with: “Dear Netflix, We just finished watching The Royals and immediately felt the strong urge to reach out to you on behalf of the 565 princely states of India who were portrayed fairly sweepingly in your show.” One of the main points of contention was how the series portrayed royal families as struggling or eccentric. “Royal families are not POOR,” the letter stated. “They are not selling their palaces or making money from bat poop! They are landowners and inheritors of a rich legacy that they are monetising.”
The post quickly went viral for all the wrong reasons, with netizens piling on in the comments section. In a conversation with HT City, she elaborated on her point. “Whatever I wrote was from the heart with no malice towards anyone. For the longest time, Indian cinema and television have been creating a stereotypical imagery of royal families, which is far from true. I have worked and associated with royals for more than 15 years, helping them showcase the artisanal products they create within their palaces, presenting their culinary legacy to the world and know for a fact that this generation of royals is not doing nothing, or basking in their past. They are working hard, restoring and presenting their legacy and creating businesses that are based in their heritage,” she said.
When asked if there was a ‘correct way’ to showcase fiction, which is what The Royals is, she further said, “Even when you produce fiction, you have to portray the world you create honestly. It has to be researched. Producers need to do their homework and get their bearings right. Drama is fine, but baseless portrayal is uncalled for.”
And when asked if the Indian royals really need to be defended in such a way, she said, “My post was an expression of my solidarity towards a world I have worked hard to present in the right light to the rest of the world. I am a self-made, hard-working entrepreneur who was recognised with a president's award for my work in reviving the palace karkhanas. My post is simply my point of view, an insider's perspective of a strata of Indian society who for so long have contributed so much to our culture but only been profiled as decadent people living an opulent, mindless life in popular cinema.”
For most viewers, The Royals is just an imaginative, over-the-top piece of fiction, hardly aspirational, and certainly not a bridge to the royal society. For Khanna, it is more — a misrepresentation of a legacy, a history, a heritage.
