Disney+ Hotstar invites wrath of netizens over 'The Empire'
Disney+ Hotstar has invited social media wrath over their newly-released series, The Empire. That's because the streamer has refused to entertain any grievance complaints about the show, which netizens feel glorifies Mughal Emperor Babur, who's responsible for killing hundreds of Hindus. This has led to a raging hashtag on Twitter, #UninstallHotstar, which has collected over 34K tweets at the time of writing.
The seething anger against Hotstar ensued when The Empire trailer had dropped earlier this month. One Vikas Pandey, a software professional and activist, had objected to the way Babur, played by Kunal Kapoor, was portrayed in the clip. Recently, Hotstar responded to his complaint, and said that the series doesn't do anything like that, and it simply has followed its base material, a novel.
The Empire is based on Alex Rutherford's Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North, which details how Babur went from Ferghana to Samarkhand, and beyond that. The show traces just that, maintains Hotstar, but netizens aren't convinced. The grievance officer, who was appointed under IT (Guidelines for intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, rejected their complaints, angering them all the more.
The streaming giant also said that The Empire doesn't refer to the Supreme Court judgment of 2019, which went in support of Ram Lalla Virajman at the Ram Janmabhoomi temple. That's also where Babri Masjid, a blotch in the Indian history, once stood. To make that structure, Babur's aide demolished a Ram Temple and forcibly converted hundreds of Hindus to gain favor.
However, Twitterati is maintaining Babur was a mass murderer anyway, despite what the show covers. They also highlighted that if the trailer was meant to up the excitement around the show, the carnage he brought upon Hindus would have done that. This fiasco comes days after what director Kabir Khan told about Mughals. He said they were the "original nation builders," naturally angering netizens.
Meanwhile, noted poet and lyricist Manoj Muntashir is being called out by the likes of Richa Chadha and Masaan director Neeraj Ghaywan for calling the Mughals "dacoits." He had posted a video recently titled Who are your ancestors, where he had made this remark.
