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'The Royals' starring Bhumi Pednekar, Ishaan Khatter, Zeenat Aman, Sakshi Tanwaramong others has been creating a lot of buzz ever since the series began streaming. The 8-episode series has been loved by many but also faced some flak. However, largely, it's Bhumi Pednekar's casting which created a lot of chatter on social media.
Many thought that the actress was a misfit and she also received flak as the internet alleged that she's undergone a lip surgery. Priyanka Ghose has directed six episodes out of eight, while Nupur Asthana has directed two episodes. Priyanka spoke to ETimes about the feedback for 'The Royals', criticism, working with Zeenat Aman, the biggest challenge today as a director amidst more. Read on...
How are you reacting to all the feedback for the show?
I'm actually flooded with a lot of love and a lot of appreciation that's coming in from friends and family across the world.
I am shooting for my next project and so deep into it that I have had no time to do any amount of research and know where we are trending or not trending or receiving some backlash or receiving tremendous love. But I'm getting constant messages from my family and friends and Ishaan, Bhumi, other cast members which is making me feel there is a lot of love all over.
But there is also a lot of criticism regarding the show, you had a chance to read any of it?
I think there is always going to be both sides of the coin, no matter what you make.
You will receive polarised opinions and that's alright. Because everyone's entitled to their own opinion and what they feel about something. And as much as there is criticism and any kind of negative feedback, there is also that amount of crazy love and people messaging, can't wait for season 2. And at the end of the day, as long as people are still loving it and still watching it, that is what still counts and that's what fuels you to keep going further and doing better.
What do you have to say about all the chatter around Bhumi Pednekar's casting?
I still stand by the decision of her casting because I think it was a great shout out from my team. My producers and Netflix got the wind of the fact that Bhumi is someone who they could approach for something like this. She's the queen of heartland India and she's always done these extremely intense and serious and very heavy stories and roles. So, we thought that Bhumi would be open to something lighter. And I always maintain this, that it's so much harder to pull off a role and a genre like this.
Even while directing it, I face the same challenge. Unlike my other work previously (The Night Manager, Broken But Beautiful S3), where you have the usual tropes of action, thriller, drama. I think even for an actor, when you're doing a lighter role like this, you don't have the usual tropes of the intense, performance-heavy, power-packed scenes. I think it's in fact harder for Bhumi to have pulled off something like this.
It was a great call to cast her because I was thrilled. I was excited because I knew what a powerful actor she is. I thought there are shades of Sophia inherently there in Bhumi. As much as people criticised, most people also told me that they loved Ishaan and Bhumi's chemistry. It was a very unusual casting.
Tell us about the experience of working with Zeenat Aman.
If there was one person who I was completely in awe of because of her being such a legend it was Zeenat Ma'am. And the one thing that I discovered to my pleasant surprise is that unlike popular opinion where everyone would think that she's such a poised diva who carries herself with such a grace, which she totally does.
You can't take your eyes off her and your attention will never go in the room. But she also has this crazy childlike energy.
She's extremely giggly and fun. She's actually like a teenager. I had never met someone her age behave like this, who's like a giggly teenager, and who gives you these pearls of wisdom. An actor of her stature and I have no body of work in comparison. She had no business having to listen to me constantly. But, she would infact, come and ask questions to me constantly and be like, are you okay if I improvise this line?
English (US)