Nikkhil Advani: We have blindly followed the book

Poster of Advani’s The Empire

One look at the trailer of The Empire, and zealous Indian netizens immediately drew comparisons with the iconic Game of Thrones. While the comparisons are premature, there's no denying that creator Nikkhil Advani has taken on an ambitious task - through the eight-part Disney+ Hotstar offering that is adapted from the first book in Alex Rutherford's Empire of the Moghul series, he will offer a retelling of the life and times of Mughal emperor Babur up until the First Battle of Panipat in 1526. With the material of this nature at hand, wasn't he inclined to design it as an elaborate big-screen outing? "This story can't be told in two hours; that would be gross injustice to the book. Our intention is to adapt all six books in the series," begins Advani.

The creator's singular brief to director Mitakshara Kumar, who has trained under Sanjay Leela Bhansali, was to make it an extravagant affair. "I was constantly hovering around to ensure we made it bigger," he laughs, adding that shooting post the 2020 lockdown was an ordeal. "Our crew strength [pre-lockdown] was 400, and post the lockdown, we were told only 50 junior artistes could be used. [Since 2020], we went to Uzbekistan thrice; the weather was a spoilsport every time. Writing was relatively easier. We brought down a Hollywood writing consultant [Matt Pyken] who joined the director, Bhavani Iyer, myself and the internal teams from Emmay and Hotstar. During the lockdown, we went back to writing, and were able to flesh out the women characters better. These women [influenced] the dynasty by being manipulative, courageous, kind and sacrificial." The team hired a historian to ensure they are factually accurate, every step of the way. "From the scripts to the costumes, the lyrics to dialogues, everything was sent to Ejaz bhai [Syed Ejaz Hussain, History department, Visva Bharati University] for vetting. This was followed by an intensive legal vetting at the streaming giant's end."

Nikkhil Advani

Though the period drama was earlier announced with Shabana Azmi, Ronit Roy and Dia Mirza, the latter two were replaced to include Kunal Kapoor, Drashti Dhami and Dino Morea. Asked what led to the change in the cast, he says, "We changed our approach to the story. Earlier, we wanted three heroes to play Kunal's character, but that was reduced to two. Kunal did justice to both, the younger and older parts. Drashti came well-recommended by Gaurav Banerjee [president and head, Hindi and English Entertainment, Star India] because we didn't have time to set up her character. Her off-screen image was important for that instant connect and given her television presence, she was a great fit."

Difficult as it is to achieve the grand scale of the show, Advani probably has a bigger hurdle. It presumably cannot be easy to tell an honest story about Mughals in the current political and social climate. He takes a pause before saying, "I am lucky that we have the rights to the book. We have blindly followed the book. Diana Preston and her husband Michael Preston, who use the pen name Alex Rutherford, are avid historians of the Mughal period. As creators, we have to be true to the characters."

The creator hopes that the drama creates "hungama" so that he can make the second instalment even grander. "I envy the makers of Mirzapur. They put out a teaser, and fans go gaga. I hope we are able to create that frenzy. But eventually, as a creator, I hope we can tell the story that we are supposed to be telling," he smiles, leaving us to decode that loaded sentence.

Also Read: Mounting the empire of Moghuls in Thane