Netflix’s The Royals is set to return with its second season, and the series is getting a casting update. After Bhumi Pednekar’s reported exit, Miss India World Sini Shetty and actor Gurfateh Pirzada will be joining the sophomore segment which is set to begin shooting in Udaipur this week.
Ishaan Khatter will be making a return as Prince Aviraaj Singh, the scion of a royal family who in the first season was trying to save his financially troubled estate by partnering with Bhumi’s Sophia Kanmani Shekhar, who wants to turn the regal property into a hotel. Apparently, the new season will have Ishaan, Sini, and Gurfateh in a love triangle.
Earlier this year, a mid-day report had stated that Bhumi had exited The Royals, as the makers do not want to continue with the romantic subplot and instead focus on the dynamics of the royal family, “When you do a romance, it is the story that leads. When the show came out, what resonated [with the audience] was the family — Ishaan, Sakshi, Zeenat, and the world of The Royals — which feels different. We left season one with an unresolved romance. There was no decision to carry it forward. There was no fight with Bhumi. The makers are simply letting the story lead forward organically in the second season,” the report quoted a source as saying.
The report added that Bhumi is now looking at more layered, intense roles in a different genre. She is set to return as a troubled cop in the second season of Amazon Prime Video’s Daldal and co-star alongside Imran Khan in his comeback film for Netflix. “Bhumi is also set to feature opposite Imran Khan in what insiders describe as his long-awaited comeback film for Netflix. The project, currently under wraps, has been in development for some time. She is also expected to begin working on Daldal 2, a project that aligns more closely with the intense space she has increasingly gravitated towards in recent years,” the source added.
The first season of The Royals also featured an ensemble cast of Sakshi Tanwar, Zeenat Aman, Sakshi Tanwar, Nora Fatehi, Vihaan Samat, Dino Morea, and Milind Soman.