''The Empire'' is an Indian
period drama
A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swas ...
streaming television series created by
Nikkhil Advani and directed by
Mitakshara Kumar
Mitakshara Kumar is an Indian filmmaker and writer. Mitakshara graduated in B.A.(Hons.) Economics from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. After completing her graduation, she pursued direction from Film and Television Institute of India. She sta ...
based on the novel series ''
Empire of the Moghul'' by
Alex Rutherford for
Disney+ Hotstar
Disney+ Hotstar (also known as Hotstar) is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Disney Star and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, both ...
.
The series was premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 27 August 2021.
The first season of the series opened to generally favourable reviews with praise for the show's visuals, sets, costumes and the performance of the main cast, with a positive consensus on
Shabana Azmi's portrayal of
Ësan Dawlat and criticism for poor VFX in a few scenes.
Premise
The series depicts upon the rise and fall of the
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the ...
, starting from
Babur
Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...
. The story begins from
Farghana where the young prince Babur is crowned as emperor at a young age after the death of his father, Umar Sheikh. His grandmother
Aisan Daulat Begum
Aisan Daulat Begum (died June, 1505, other spellings ''Ehsan Daulat, Isan Daulat, Ësan Dawlat'') was the first wife and chief consort of Yunus Khan of Moghulistan. She was the mother of Qutlugh Nigar Khanum, and hence the grandmother of the fir ...
guides him in his rule. He begins his campaign for the conquest of
North India
North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Centr ...
through hardships, betrayals and struggles amongst his court members. He was then defeated by
Muhammad Shaybani Khan, and as a part of a deal to save their life, his elder sister, Khanzada had to marry Shaybani. She then falls in love with Shaybani, but she ultimately chooses her brother over him, tricks him and becomes a cause of his death.
Babur then travels to Hindustan, defeats
Ibrahim Lodi
Ibrahim Khan Lodi (or Lodhi) (Pashto: ابراهیم خان لودي), (1480 – 21 April 1526) was the last Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, who became Sultan in 1517 after the death of his father Sikandar Khan Lodi. He was the last ruler of t ...
in the
Battle of Panipat, and establishes the
Mughal Dynasty
The Mughal dynasty ( fa, ; ''Dudmân-e Mughal'') comprised the members of the imperial House of Babur
( fa, ; ''Khāndān-e-Āl-e-Bābur''), also known as the Gurkanis ( fa, ; ''Gūrkāniyān''), who ruled the Mughal Empire from to 1857.
Th ...
. Amongst his wives' battle for the heir to the imperial throne, Babur finally selects
Humayun
Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad ( fa, ) (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Norther ...
as his successor.
Cast
*
Shabana Azmi as
Ësan Dawlat / "Shah" Begum
*
Kunal Kapoor as
Babur
Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...
*
Dino Morea as
Shaibani Khan
Muhammad Shaybani Khan ( uz, Muhammad Shayboniy, also known as Abul-Fath Shaybani Khan or Shayabak Khan or Shahi Beg Khan, originally named "Shibägh", which means " wormwood" or "obsidian") (c. 1451 – 2 December 1510), was an Uzbek leader ...
*
Drashti Dhami as
Khanzada Begum
Khanzada Begum ( 1478 – 1545) was a Timurid princess and the eldest daughter of Umar Shaikh Mirza II, the '' amir'' of Ferghana. She was also the elder sister of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire. She and her brother remained deeply at ...
* Mehroos Mir as Young
Babur
Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...
*
Gracy Goswami
Gracy Goswami is an Indian actress who mainly works in Hindi television and films. She made her acting debut in 2014 portraying Pinky Patil in '' Bandhan''. Goswami is best known for her portrayal of Nandini Shekhar in ''Balika Vadhu'' and Amri ...
as Young
Khanzada Begum
Khanzada Begum ( 1478 – 1545) was a Timurid princess and the eldest daughter of Umar Shaikh Mirza II, the '' amir'' of Ferghana. She was also the elder sister of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire. She and her brother remained deeply at ...
*
Aditya Seal
Aditya Seal is an Indian actor, best known for his portrayal as a male lead actor in the film Tum Bin II. He made his film debut with '' Ek Chhotisi Love Story'', where he played a teenager opposite Manisha Koirala. He has played roles such ...
as
Humayun
Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad ( fa, ) (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Norther ...
*
Sahher Bambba as
Maham Begum
Maham Begum or Mahim Begum (d. 16 April 1534) was the Empress consort of the Mughal Empire from 20 April 1526 to 26 December 1530 as the third wife and chief consort of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire and the first Mughal emperor. She wa ...
*
Rahul Dev as Wazir Khan
*
Khalid Siddiqui as
Umar Shaikh Mirza II
*
Imaad Shah
Imaaduddin Shah (also credited as Imaad Shah; born 20 September 1986) is an Indian actor and musician. He is the son of actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah.
Early life
Imaad was born to actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak on 20 ...
as Qasim
*
Gireesh Sahdev
Gireesh Sahdev is an Indian film and television actor who appears in Hindi films and serials. He is best known for his roles in the serials '' Best of Luck Nikki'', '' Navya..Naye Dhadkan Naye Sawaal'', ''Ardhangini – Ek Khoobsurat Jeevan Saa ...
as Baisanghar
* Charu Shankar as
Qutlugh Nigar Khanum
Qutlugh Nigar Khanum (''also spelled Kutlak Nigar Khanum''; d. 1505) was the first wife and chief consort of Umar Shaikh Mirza II, the ruler of Ferghana Valley. She was a princess of Moghulistan by birth and was a daughter of Yunus Khan, the Great ...
* Aayam Mehta as Aitbaar
* Toranj Kayvon as Gulrukh Begum
* Swattee Thakur as Nishqa
* Kalliroi Tzaifeta as Roxanna
* Akansha Sareen as Razia
* Megha Kaul as Dildar Begum
* Salina Prakash as Aq Quzi Begum
* Madhuri Pandey as Nusrat
*
Naved Aslam as Qambar Ali
*Karan Pandit as
Kamran Mirza
* Anuj Singh Duhan as Aslam Nawaz
* Digvijay Purohit as Zulfikar Anwar
* Akshay Nagori as Jibran
Episodes
Production
Development
Nikhil Advani accepted the idea of creating the show being brought up by
Star India
Disney Star Private Limited is an Indian media conglomerate and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Disney Star network runs more than 70 TV channels in eight languages, rea ...
.
Bhavani Iyer was initially tapped to write the screenplay for the digital adaptation on the show, with
A. M. Turaz penning the dialogue. The show focuses on
Babur
Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...
for the first season.
Speaking about the series with ''
Scroll.in'', Advani said, “What we know about the Mughal Empire is its men, but the highlight of the series is the active role women played in the backroom politics and manipulations
..Women had the remote controls.”
Casting
Ronit Roy,
Dia Mirza
Dia Mirza Rekhi (born Dia Handrich; 9 December 1981) is an Indian model, actress, producer, and social worker who predominantly works in Hindi films. Mirza won the title of Miss Asia Pacific International in 2000 after being crowned Femina Mi ...
and
Shabana Azmi were initially cast in the lead roles (in September 2018).
However, Ronit and Dia left the series for unknown reasons, and they were replaced by
Kunal Kapoor and
Drashti Dhami respectively.
[ Rahul Dev was confirmed to be part of the cast in July 2020.]
Filming
Principal photography took place in Jaipur
Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known as ...
in February 2020. The shoot was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
in March 2020, and it was later resumed after the lockdown in September 2020. After shooting a large portion on sets, the filming was moved to Wai, Maharashtra to recreate wilderness scene. A huge set for Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
was recreated in Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...
.
Release
The series premiered on Disney+ Hotstar
Disney+ Hotstar (also known as Hotstar) is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Disney Star and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, both ...
on 27 August 2021.
Promotion
The first teaser was released in July 2021 by Disney+ Hotstar and the trailer was released in August 2021.
Reception
Saraswati Datar of ''The News Minute
''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Dhanya Rajendran, Chitra Subramaniam and Vignesh Vellore in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, An ...
'' welcomed the series by writing that "The Empire is an ambitious and sincere attempt to tackle a brand-new genre in the Indian OTT space, and it prompted me to go find out more about Babur than what textbooks had taught us."
'' Lehren's'' Bharathi Pradhan praised the performances of actors Shabana Azmi, Rahul Dev, Drashti Dhami, Kunal Kapoor and Dino Morea and added "when Babur's sister, well played by Drashti (Dhami), adds her bit to the tome titled ‘Baburnama,’ you know history is always part fiction. Take it with a pinch of salt." In a similar review, Shubham Kulkarni of ''Koimoi
Koimoi is a Bollywood entertainment website providing Bollywood news, box-office reports and film reviews. In January 2021, its Alexa ranking in India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is ...
'' wrote "The Empire is a huge step in creating extravagant shows for the Indian OTT. There is everything a period drama lover craves for. Go in and get to witness the saga that talks about love, war and betrayal. But ..watch it with the word ‘fiction’ in your mind. It doesn’t intend to educate you.
Writing for ''Film Companion
Anupama Chopra () is an Indian author, journalist, film critic and director of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. She is also the founder and editor of the digital platform Film Companion, which offers a curated look at cinema. She has written sev ...
'', Rahul Desai called The Empire “a weak cocktail of fact and fiction”. He criticised the “diplomatic identity” and “free fictionalization” of the Mughal story. Rohan Nahaar of ''Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia.
It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...
'' wrote that “a potentially engaging story of palace intrigue is wasted in Disney+ Hotstar's consistently dull adaptation of Alex Rutherford's Mughal era novels.”
Sampada Sharma of ''The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Limited, Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, ...
'' wrote that the show "excels in the aesthetic department. From the intricately crafted sets, to the beautifully designed costumes, the show leaves you in awe but what it gains in aesthetics, it loses out in VFX." Additionally, Sharma criticised the length of the series but praised the performance of the cast by writing that "The Empire’s eight episodes feel a little too long, especially in places where there is song-and-dance. ..Shabana Azmi has an aura about her that that evokes respect for her character. It is evident that a character like hers often wonders why she lives in a patriarchal world when clearly she is the smartest one around. Later in the series, Drashti Dhami’s Khanzada tries to take her legacy ahead."[
Pradeep Menon of '']Firstpost
''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18.
The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Ra ...
'' appreciated the look and feel of the series writing that “the makers of The Empire deserve to be rewarded for the scale and the feel, with the chance to follow up with future seasons. But they desperately need to get their act together in terms of writing and casting.”[
Vibha Maru of '']India Today
''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new on ...
'' praised the performance of the lead cast, saying that “Kunal Kapoor and Shabana Azmi rule this historical drama”.
Shefali Deshpande of ''The Quint
''The Quint'' is an English and Hindi language Indian general news and opinion website founded by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur after their exit from Network18. The publication's journalists have won three Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalis ...
'' wrote that "The Empire is an engaging story of family & the casualty that is war, The first thing that hits you is the breathtaking visuals. Barring the sometimes tacky VFX of the palaces, castles and buildings, the actual sets and some special effects are beautiful."
Appreciating the series, Shilajit Mitra of ''The New Indian Express
''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...
'' wrote "In the Indian arena, The Empire beats out its contemporaries in scale and ambition. Some of the exterior shots and battlefield vistas are stunning to behold. ..The action, too, is smoothly choreographed and rendered. I’ll look out for Season 2, just to see how they scale up from here. The Empire has found its feet."
Anuj Kumar of '' The Hindu'' appreciated the performances of the cast, the aesthetics and the series, in general, but opined that it skipped numerous significant historical events by writing that "we get to see the First Battle of Panipat, but the equally important Battle of Khanwa is glossed over. Similarly, for an emperor who grew up listening to multicultural poetry of Amir Khusro, his interaction with his new subjects, particularly the Sikhs, remain untouched ..Babur’s bond with the new land and its rich flora and fauna — something he has written about extensively — remains out of the script. His love for opium and music has been airbrushed ..how Babur crossed the mighty rivers curiously remains out of the canvas."
Hindu nationalist users on the Internet criticized the web series for glorifying Mughals
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
, causing a grievance complaint to be filed against the web series. The grievance officer appointed under Information Technology (Guidelines for intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 received complaints against the web series., but he rejected those claims. Addressing this controversy, Nikkhil Advani told IANS: "For me, the force field in this case has been the book. I am following the book. If you have an objection you need to understand that as a maker and storyteller I have been fascinated by the book and by the story they have told in the book"
References
External links
*
''The Empire''
at Hotstar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Empire (TV series), The
Hindi-language Disney+ Hotstar original programming
Hindi-language television shows
Mughal Empire in fiction
Indian action television series
Indian drama television series
Television shows based on Indian novels
Indian period television series
Family saga television series
Television series about dysfunctional families
2021 Indian television series debuts
Babur
Cultural depictions of Indian monarchs
Cultural depictions of Indian men
Cultural depictions of Indian women
Moghulistan
Khanate of Bukhara
Timurid Empire
History of India in fiction
Timurid dynasty
Lodi dynasty
Delhi Sultanate