Kunal Kapoor plays the central role of Babur in The Empire. Visually and thematically ambitious, the series — created by Nikkhil Advani and directed by Mitakshara Kumar — traces the rise and fall of the Mughal empire through generations, from Babur to Aurangzeb, and has been shot in India and Uzbekistan. Set to stream on Disney+Hotstar from August 27, The Empire boasts a heavy-duty cast comprising Shabana Azmi, Dino Morea, Drashti Dhami and Aditya Seal. A t2 chat with Kunal on the show and why he’s not just an actor.

Just in terms of scale and spectacle, The Empire looks like something that we haven’t seen so far from Indian homegrown content. It seems like one of those projects one would sign on with their eyes closed...

Well, I had read the book (Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North by Alex Rutherford) on which the show is based. I had read the first few books in the series, which comprises six books, and I thought this would make for a very interesting show. The characters are incredibly well layered and well written and the world that he had created was very interesting. I also found, for the first time in a book about kings and emperors, the women wielding a lot of power. Usually that’s not the case. I found that very interesting.

Coincidentally, I got a call from Nikkhil (Advani, the producer and creator of The Empire) saying that he had bought the rights to the book. He said that he had written a script and he wanted me to read it. I told him, ‘My God, I just read the book and was thinking of how it would make for great content, and now you are offering me the script!’ Sometimes what happens is that the source material is great, but the script doesn’t do justice to it. Here, I felt that the script was as good as the book. So it was a sort of
no-brainer that I would jump to do it.

We can see the physical challenges that must have come your way to slip into the part of Babur. What were the other hurdles that you had to surmount?

Physically, of course, was the fact that this character undergoes a transformation over time. In the show, Babur ages from 22 to about 45. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time between playing those two ages to make huge changes in my body, but I lost some weight and then put it back on for the older version.

The more important challenge was to understand the time. Even though the character has been written in a very exciting way in the book and in the script, that time was very different and people, of course, had a different mindset. They valued very different things, and so it was very important for me to understand the world and the time that these people came from.

And finally, whenever you are doing a historical, the first thing that comes to your mind is Mughal-e-Azam, where everyone was theatrical and was a certain way, at least physically. The challenge for me was to break out of that and approach the character in a way that was real. I had to walk and talk in a way that was rooted in authenticity.

You will be catering to an audience that is increasingly being exposed to global content of a very high standard. I am not even mentioning Game of Thrones because that’s a comparison you all have heard enough of. But does the pressure of living up to the expectations of a more evolved audience bring in some amount of pressure?

I am sure the makers are under pressure because The Empire has been made with a hugely ambitious vision. But as an actor, it’s very exciting for me. I am coming off some films where I have had to pay my airline tickets myself because the production couldn’t afford it since they were small-budget films (laughs). And from there, I went on to this project where I got lost on the first day of shoot because the set was so huge! (Laughs)

Do you think a show of such scale and vision could have been made in India even five years ago?

I think it would have been challenging, honestly. The kind of budget that has gone into making The Empire is humongous. I don’t know if five or seven years back, streaming platforms would have been willing to put in this kind of money into a show.

The other thing that streaming platforms have realised and also democratised is the equality of talent. Earlier, a project like this would have looked at casting the biggest names in the business, but that has changed dramatically now. Content is now not driven by market forces, it’s driven by who’s the best person for a particular part. That has been a big shift and that’s why one gets to see such wonderful talent — whether it’s actors, writers or directors — on streaming platforms as opposed to movies now. There are so many talented actors with say, 20 years of experience on stage, but they never got the right opportunities because the market forces didn’t give them that. I can honestly say that you can see far more talented actors in OTT shows than in the big-budget commercial films now.

How does this phase benefit you?

It does mostly in terms of giving me content that is far more relatable. When I started out, I was offered a lot of work but I didn’t take it up because I couldn’t find these people I was being asked to play relatable. The heroes were heroes and the villains were villains... they were people that I didn’t see in my life. Now we have characters that are far more flawed, and the audiences have also opened up to that.

When I read these characters, I find them relatable and I want to play them. These are people I have seen in my life, this is how I feel in life, and these are people I would like to see on screen. This is a time where there is place for every kind of story and every kind of character. You don’t have to play to a stereotype, and that, for me, is very liberating.

Coming back to The Empire, I understand that this is a series and could have only released on a streaming platform. But given the grand visuals, does it rankle somewhere that many people will watch it on their mobile phones?

Yes, that is something that I have thought of. The Empire is a cinematic experience. It’s not been shot for the mobile phone, it’s been shot like how one would shoot a film meant for a theatrical experience. I do think that some part of the joy will be lost when you watch it on your phone, but that’s part of the territory and there’s nothing that one can do about it. That’s something that we have to make peace with.

In a career spanning close to two decades, what would you pick as the highs?

It hasn’t been a perfect journey, of course. There has been success and failure, ups and downs. There have been moments of great exhilaration and moments of frustration as well. But that’s just how the journey has been. What’s been wonderful is that I have had the chance to work with directors and actors I really admire, and also work on parts that I have really enjoyed. I didn’t want to be on a set doing a movie that I was unhappy about. I had an experience like that very early on in my career. I went to the set and thought, ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing this?’ And I promised myself that I wouldn’t go through that experience again.

So all the movies I have chosen and all the people I have worked with have been great fun. (Actor) Raghubir Yadav told me early on, ‘You are very fortunate to be an actor because most people look at life from one point of view; actors get to see things from multiple points of view’. That stuck with me.

Your life is not just limited to acting. Have you always been someone who likes doing multiple things?

I have always been very curious. I didn’t want my life to be just about one thing. M.F. Husain (who directed Kunal in Meenaxi) had told me once, ‘People like slotting me as a painter, but I am not just a painter. I am also a traveller, a foodie, I love music, I have relationships.... Don’t let people define you by just one thing’. That’s something I have believed in as well. I love flying, I have a tech company, I am working on another tech company which will launch soon.... I am writing scripts and also making a foray into production. Life is very short to limit oneself and tag oneself as, ‘I am just this’.

But on your social media bio, you have tagged yourself simply as ‘Tall’. I found that really intriguing!

(Laughs) I did that because I came to the conclusion that this is the only thing that will be constant now. I am always going to be the tall guy, everything else could change! That’s the only constant in my life.

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