Ishaan Khatter is back in the gym, and he wants everyone to know it.

The actor put up a set of black-and-white workout pictures on social media this week, showing off a noticeably sharper physique. The caption did the rest of the talking: "Brick. By. Brick. Earned, not given." No further context, no hashtags explaining what it's for. Fans didn't need it. Khatter is gearing up to play Aviraaj Singh again in The Royals Season 2, and this is clearly the training montage before the training montage.

He's done this before. For Season 1, Khatter went through weight training and horse riding to build the character, and it worked. The royal swagger, the physicality, the general screen presence he brought to Aviraaj got noticed well beyond the show's own fanbase. So when he starts posting gym pictures again, it reads less like a random fitness update and more like a signal flare: Season 2 prep is officially underway.

What's changed for Aviraaj this time, nobody's saying. Khatter hasn't revealed a thing about where the character goes in the new season, and the post itself gives away nothing beyond the physical grind. That's left fans to fill in the blanks, which, going by the reaction online, they're more than happy to do.

The Royals, for the uninitiated, is Netflix's stab at a glossy Indian royal-family drama, and it built a real audience around Khatter's Season 1 turn. A second season getting an actual production push, with its lead already deep into physical prep, suggests Netflix isn't sitting on this one.

Khatter's own year has been busy outside the show too. Beyond the Clouds, A Suitable Boy, The Perfect Couple, a growing fashion footprint with Cartier, GQ and BOSS. He's become one of the more visible Indian actors on the international style circuit, which makes a shirtless gym post travel further than it might for someone with a smaller footprint outside Bollywood.

For now, there's no premiere date, no first-look, no cast additions confirmed. Just an actor putting in the hours and letting the pictures speak. Whether Aviraaj comes back leaner, meaner or just louder is the question Season 2 will eventually have to answer. Khatter, going by the caption, is treating the answer as something he has to earn all over again.