S Jaishankar, the face of India's foreign policy, just dropped a bombshell about his Netflix habit.
He admitted that he watches "The Diplomat" even though he thinks it glosses over the gritty reality of his daily grind. "The Diplomat is very quintessentially American," Jaishankar said, adding that a realistic series on diplomacy would probably put viewers to sleep. The show, which premiered on Netflix in April 2023, follows Keri Russell’s character, Kate Wyler, as she navigates the tense waters of a U.S. ambassadorship in the United Kingdom. While the series has already rolled out a second season, Jaishankar’s observation hits home for viewers who crave authenticity. He mentioned Fauda as a closer mirror of real geopolitics, but noted that even it feels like a dramatized version. The minister’s comments underscore a truth many fans already suspect: Hollywood’s love for spectacle often trumps nuance. The candidness came over a casual chat with NDTV editor Rahul Kanwal at the World Summit in Bangalore, where Jaishankar joked about a "busman’s holiday"—the idea that even a diplomat’s downtime is still tied to global affairs. He highlighted how the show’s dramatizations, while entertaining, sometimes overlook the subtlety of real diplomatic negotiations. For fans of political thrillers, the lesson is simple: the real world is less glamorous, but the drama you love might still hold a mirror. The minister’s remarks may prompt a second look at shows that promise to reveal the hidden life of diplomats, even if they’re still a few steps away from the truth.