Nitya Mehra and Mitakshara Kumar take on the director's chair for The Royals 2 after Jasmeet K Reen's exit

A still from ‘The Royals’. Pics/Instagram

Royal drama has surrounded The Royals ever since its second season went on floors. In May, we reported that Bhumi Pednekkar wouldn't reprise her role in the Netflix series (Love lost in palace, May 10), while director Jasmeet K Reen exited the project last month. So, what's happening on the Ishaan Khatter-led romantic comedy? mid-day's got the latest development - turns out, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar co-director Mitakshara Kumar has begun helming the series in Jaipur, and Hunkkaar: The Roar co-director Nitya Mehra will join soon.

Apparently, Reen had filmed for five days, but the portions will now be reshot under Kumar's guidance. The production is said to have also revisited the written material. This indicates an extensive production reset rather than a straightforward change of director. A source revealed, "The shoot has now resumed in Jaipur with Mitakshara and the team is working on the revised version. The unit's focus now is to complete its daily schedule. The team is effectively starting afresh and has to make up for the time lost while keeping the budgets in check."

From what we've heard, under the leadership of Reen, who previously helmed Darlings (2022), The Royals 2 unit struggled to complete each day's planned scenes. The growing backlog prompted producers Rangita Nandy and Ishita Nandy to reassess the footage shot.

The source added, "Jasmeet could not align with the show's scale. Everyone on set was confused on the first few days because she wasn't giving any direction on how to navigate. We never finished the shoot on any of those days. Every day scenes would pile up to be filmed the next day. The new directors will reshoot her five days' scenes because nothing was looking good as per what was expected of the pilot."

Know the directors:

Nitya Mehra

Besides showrunning and directing certain episodes of ‘Made in Heaven', Nitya Mehra has also co-directed ‘Big Girls Don't Cry' (2024) and ‘Hunkkaar: The Roar'

Mitakshara Kumar

Mitakshara Kumar directed ‘The Empire' (2021) and certain episodes of ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar' (2024)