General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Empire

The Empire is an Indian historical fiction drama series that premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 27 August 2021, dramatizing the rise of Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, from his inheritance of the kingdom of Ferghana to his conquest of Hindustan.¹^•² Directed by Mitakshara Kumar and showrun by Nikkhil Advani, the eight-episode first season adapts Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North, the first novel in a six-book historical fiction series written by Alex Rutherford, the pen name of the British husband-and-wife team Diana and Michael Preston.¹^•³ The production company Emmay Entertainment describes the larger project as covering the rise and fall of the Mughal Empire through generations from Babur to Aurangzeb.⁴

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	27 August 2021, Disney+ Hotstar (Hotstar Specials)¹^•⁵
Format	Season 1 of 8 episodes, Hindi, roughly 42 minutes each; dubbed in Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, and Kannada¹^•⁶
Source	Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North by Alex Rutherford (Diana and Michael Preston)³
Key crew	Director Mitakshara Kumar; showrunner Nikkhil Advani; writers Bhavani Iyer, Kumar, Advani, and A.M. Turaz; music by Ashutosh Phatak¹
Principal cast	Kunal Kapoor (Babur), Dino Morea (Shaybani Khan), Shabana Azmi (Aisan Daulat Begum), Drashti Dhami (Khanzada)⁷
Production scale	Nearly 150 shooting days across Uzbekistan, Rajasthan, and about 50 sets in Mumbai, with a crew of about 200³
Reception	IMDb rating of 4.7 from about 17,000 votes; critics widely praised Shabana Azmi's performance while criticizing pacing and visual effects⁸^•⁹

Spoilers

Premise and source material

The first season follows Babur (played by Kunal Kapoor) from his youth in Central Asia to the First Battle of Panipat in 1526, in which he defeated the Lodi dynasty and founded Mughal rule in India.²^•¹⁰ The opening episode begins after the death of Umar Shaikh, King of Ferghana, when the young Babur assumes responsibility for a kingdom while rival claimants circle the throne; later episodes depict the loss of Ferghana and Samarkand to Shaibani Khan, Babur's principal antagonist.⁶

Sources differ on Babur's age at the story's start: Apple TV, Gadgets 360, and Hindustan Times describe him as 14 years old, while Scroll.in gives 12.⁶^•¹^•⁷ Advani told Hindustan Times that the series follows Babur from age 14 until his death at 47.³

Because the source is a novel rather than a chronicle, the series mixes real history with fiction. Advani stated that his responsibility was to the book rather than to chronicling history, noting that the Prestons are themselves avid students of the Mughal period and that a historian was on board to guide the production.³ He also confirmed that the first season omits Rana Sanga because the book does not include him.⁷

Cast and characters

Kunal Kapoor plays Babur, and Dino Morea plays his archenemy, the Uzbek ruler Shaybani Khan.⁷ Shabana Azmi plays Aisan Daulat Begum, Babur's politically influential grandmother; Drashti Dhami plays his sister Khanzada, who is forcibly wed to Shaybani Khan as part of a peace treaty; and Sahher Bambba plays his first wife. Toranj Kayvon, a Persian-Canadian actor, plays Gulrukh, princess of Kabul. The supporting cast includes Imaad Shah as Babur's confidante Kasim, Rahul Dev as his general Wazir Khan, and Aditya Seal as Humayun, Babur's son and the second Mughal ruler.⁷

Advani emphasized the women's roles as a deliberate focus: in his words, the highlight of the series is the active part women played in backroom politics and manipulation, which is why the show is titled The Empire rather than The Emperor.³^•⁷

Production

Advani's banner Emmay Entertainment, founded in 2011 with his sister Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani, produced the series; the two women served as producers.¹¹^•³ Advani has said Hotstar repeatedly reminded him that it was the most expensive Indian series to date, though the budget was not disclosed.⁷

Director choice. The first production decision was hiring Mitakshara Kumar, who had worked in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's direction team on the period dramas Bajirao Mastani (2015) and Padmaavat (2018). Advani paired her eye for detail with his own preference for gritty storytelling, as in his films D-Day and Batla House.³

Shooting. Filming began in 2018 in Rajasthan, with a large portion shot in Uzbekistan and at least 50 sets built in Mumbai; the Hindustan Times interview gives a total of nearly 150 shooting days with a crew of about 200 people.⁷^•³ The 2020 coronavirus lockdown interrupted production; when work resumed, the unit shot in a bio bubble of about 50 people, and because no studio was large enough for the sets, the team hired open grounds and built sets there. Advani said the downtime was used to revisit the script and work on visual effects.³^•⁷

Reception and controversy

The series was widely covered in India as "India's answer to Game of Thrones," and critical responses ranged from favorable to harsh. The Indian Express's Sampada Sharma called it a sincere attempt at a new genre in Indian streaming, praising the sets and costumes while noting that what the show gains in aesthetics it loses in visual effects. Hindustan Times's Rohan Naahar called it "horrendous" and dull, pointing to scenes he described as lifted from Game of Thrones and unconvincing sets. Reviewers in Mint and Firstpost likewise saw borrowings from Baahubali and Bhansali's films.⁹^•¹² Critics across outlets united in praising Shabana Azmi, with reviewers crediting her with elevating the series through her presence alone.⁹

Boycott calls. After release, the hashtag #UninstallHotstar trended as some viewers called for a boycott, alleging that the series glorified Babur, a controversial figure in Indian politics. Hotstar denied, in response to grievance complaints, that the series glorified him.⁹ Scroll.in noted the series arrived amid heightened anti-Muslim politics in India, and Advani responded that the team had stayed truthful to the source novel.⁷ On the audience aggregate IMDb, the show holds a rating of 4.7 out of 10 from about 17,000 votes.⁸

Availability

The series streams on JioHotstar in India, including free with advertisements, and is dubbed in six Indian languages besides Hindi.⁸^•¹ The title is shared by Bruno Dumont's French science-fiction film The Empire (2024), a separate work distributed by Kino Lorber.¹³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › South and Southeast Asian serials › Hindi serials and Indian Hindi-language dramas › Historical and period dramas

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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