Online streaming platform Hotstar has landed into trouble after the release of the web series ‘The Empire’. The movie has been released on Friday and is based on Alex Rutherford’s "Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North," the epic period action drama traces the saga of an empire from the valley of Ferghana to Samarkhand and beyond.
The web series is produced by Nikkhil Advani and has an impressive star cast including Shabana Azmi, Dino Morea, Drashti Dhami, Kunal Kapoor, Aditya Seal, Sahher Bambba, Rahul Dev and others. Kunal Kapoor who is portraying the role, Babur, while talking about the character, said, “We have heard many stories about Babur and the Mughals, but very little about who they were, where they came from and how they came into India. In this fictional take, this is a character with a lot of complexities, and that is what intrigued me as an actor.”
After the release of the web series, netizens have started raising objections to ‘The Empire’, which portrays Mughal Emperor Babur as a glorifying Islamic invader. However, this complaint was rejected by the streaming platform, which has led to the ‘Uninstall Hotstar’ trend on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
The netizens filed the case to the grievance officer [appointed under Information Technology (Guidelines for intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021] and further, the officer rejected and stated that the web series is not glorifying the Islamic invader Babur. The platform has claimed that the web series does not refer to the 2019 Supreme Court judgment in favour of Ram Lalla Virajman at the Ram Janmabhoomi temple.
One of the furious netizens wrote, “Those invaders who destroyed and looted India, killed Hindus, converted them in the name of their intolerant Jihad are being glorified in 2021? Is this what we are doing? Shame on you producers, writers, actors, etc. #UninstallHotstar”
Another wrote, “Hotstar rejects grievance complaints against their series on Babur, claims they are not glorifying the Islamic invader. I have uninstalled it, Have you?? #UninstallHotstar”
And the third wrote, “#uninstallhotstar don’t let Hotstar glorify Babar kind of invader.” Yet another wrote, “I don't want to glorify a barbaric person. #UninstallHotstar”
Here are the reactions of netizens:
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