Alumni of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's school of filmmaking and aesthetics, Mitakshara Kumar took over the directorial duties of the recently released web series titled The Empire. Starring Shabana Azmi, Kunal Kapoor, Dino Morea, Drashti Dhami, Rahul Dev, Aditya Seal, Sahher Bambba among others, the 8 episodes series was rich in production value, visuals and of course performances. Based on the life of Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, The Empire focused on his life and his surroundings. 

The Empire, based on the book Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North by Alex Rutherford, is receiving a thumbs-up from the audience for its larger-than-life production and for Mitakshara's ability to transport people to a different world through visuals and her direction. Now, as the series produced by Nikkhil Advani's Emmay Entertainment is streaming on Disney +Hotstar, PeepingMoon.com spoke to Mitakshara, who made her directorial debut with the historical drama. 

In conversation with PeepingMoon.com, Mitakshara agreed that Sanjay Leela Bhansali's filmmaking style has indeed rubbed off on her. The director further reacted to The Empire being compared with Game Of Thrones and Padmaavat. Mitakshara also opened up on Kabir Khan's interview in which he said the portrayal of Mughals in Indian cinema is problematic. 

Excerpts from the interview:

The Empire is the visual adaptation of the novel Empire of the Moghul. Was the task of adapting into a series easy?

The credit for that goes to Bhavani Iyer because she is the one who has done the story adaptation. Of course, I have read the book but the story adaptation was done by her and I worked on the screenplay after she had developed the story. Having said that, adaptations are always difficult because how would you do justice to books that are so detailed. It is a task that is challenging. For The Empire, we tried to take out the most important historical instance that happened in the book and we stayed true to the journey of the character.        

The Empire has a dream cast. How did you convince them to come on board?

We didn’t do any convincing. I believe Nikkhil (Advani, producer), Bhavani (Iyer, writer) and I have worked very hard on the script. Like Shabana (Azmi) ma’am has said in her interviews that she always wanted to do a historical character. That doesn’t mean whatever comes the way you’ll do it. She told me that she liked how every character is layered. There is scope for the actors to perform. Every time you are on camera, you have an opportunity to delve into a different aspect of the character. That’s what pulled them towards the script. 

The Empire is being compared with Game Of Thrones and people feel Dino Morea's look is similar to Ranveer Singh's Khilji in Padmaavat. Do such comparisons bother you?

They used to because I made a conscious effort to not try and make something that we have already seen before. But sadly, the thing is everyone references from pretty much the same places. I have worked on Padmaavat and have done the referencing for the film and my show too. But there is so much only available on these characters. There are only a few paintings. So everyone bases their research on those.

Yes, comparisons bothered me but now it should re-take it as compliments. They are good comparisons.        

You’ve assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali on his films. Has his style rubbed off on you too?

Obviously. He’s been my teacher for 6 years. I was a filmmaking student from FTII. I have done my direction course from there. My technicalities and understanding of cinema come from there. I have worked with many directors before but I felt I belong to the world of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Our aesthetics are very similar. I’m happy having worked with him and stuck around with him for so long because that is where I found my vision and voice. He has given me that and I am forever grateful.   

In a recent interview, Kabir Khan said that the portrayal of Indian cinema is problematic. His harsh comments came right before The Empire’s release. What’s your take on his entire dialogue?

See, everyone is entitled to have their own opinion. I have not read this interview, so I don’t know what he said. Kabir Khan is an experienced person and I have immense respect for him. If he is saying something, there must be some weight behind that. What I have seen of Mughals in Indian cinema is Mughal-E-Azam and Jodha Akbar. I think they are beautiful portrayals also because both are love stories. We are living in disturbing and difficult times. I feel we shouldn’t demonise anyone just on the basis of religion. There are far terrible things happening in the country right now. There are criminalities happening against women and children. Criminal activities should be demonised and I don’t know why we aren’t talking about that. Why do we bring religion into everything? I don’t pay much attention to religion when it comes to people’s actions.         

There is buzz that you are directing a project titled Ghalib. Can you tell us something about it?

I can’t talk about it, sorry. You’ll have to talk to the production house.