Pitch

There were once close to five hundred of them. Today only a couple of dozen remain. Once revered as demigods, the maharajas have lost their privileges, but not their aura. To keep up appearances, some have turned their vast palaces into luxury hotels or museums, balancing the splendour of another age against the demands of the twenty-first century.

In one of the most unequal countries in the world, the maharajas still captivate tourists, and Indian society too. A journey inside the very closed circle of India's last sovereigns.