Disney+Hotstar on Friday (27th August 2021) released a historical drama, The Empire, season 1 of the eight episodes series in India. The web series has been released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, Malayalam, Marathi, and Kannada.
It has been created by Nikkhil Advani of Emmay Entertainment and directed by Mitakshara Kumar who has worked as an associate director on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s epics Bajirao Mastani and Padmaavat
The Empire Hotstar Cast
The main star cast of The Empire includes Kunal Kapoor as Babur, Dino Morea as Muhammad Shaybani, Shabana Azmi as Aisan Daulat Begum, Drashti Dhami as Khanzada Begum, Aditya Seal as Humayun, and Rahul Dev as Wazir Khan.
The story starts when Babur was 14 years of age and loses his father Umar Shaikh, the king of Ferghana in Uzbekistan due to the Earthquake.
After the demise of the king, young Babur assumes responsibility for an entire kingdom while Shaibani Khan (Dino Morea) is posing imminent danger to the Kingdom of Ferghana.
The story is indeed engaging that portrays Babur’s internal brawl about his decisions to acquire kingdoms or give them up, to forgive or not to forgive, to rise above his ambition and face his humanity or not.
Whereas his grandmother Aisan Daulat Begum (Shabana Azmi) constantly incites him on what a King should do.
Babur is shown as the emperor who believes in humanity and good for his people and kingdom but circumstances force him to go in for wars and do unhumanitarian deeds.
In the story, Babur (Kunal Kapoor) avoided war against Shaibani Khan (played by Dino Morea), the villain twice, once he lost the kingdom of Ferghana and second time lost the kingdom of Samarkand and his sister Khanzada to Shaibani Khan.
The future Mughal emperor Babur conquered small regions and build an army to fight to defeat Shaibani Khan and regain what he lost to him i.e. Ferghana, Samarkhand, and his sister.
After Babur defeats Shiabani Babur he turns his attention to conquering Hindustan – which he does with the help of his son Humayun.
The Empire Hotstar Reviews
Overall the series is engaging, all the characters did good dialogue delivery. Styling and Dressing lack some point. But overall the director has been able to get the job done.
On the acting front, Kunal Kapoor and Dino Morea do justice to their roles, however, Shabana Azmi with her charismatic appearance outshines others.
