Shabana Azmi: Pulled out my personal Central Asian jackets

Kavish Sinha

Talking about becoming the unofficial language coach on the set of the Nikkhil Advani production, Azmi jokes that she was “aadat se majboor”. The senior actor sometimes found herself correcting the pronunciations of the director, producer and DoP too. “I did it with some of the principal actors too, but the cast changed, and only the young boy who played Babur and I were retained. For me, the greatest pleasure in doing the series was that it gave me a chance to speak Urdu, and the care with which we worked on Aisan Daulat’s look.”

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Alex Rutherford’s Empire of the Moghul book series serves as the foundation for the adaptation, with the first season based on his first book, Raiders from the North. Since the book offered little description of the clothes and jewellery used in the era, Azmi along with the director and costume designer Sheetal Sharma put together her look. “We decided on using Central Asian costume and tribal jewellery rather than gold and pearls. I pulled out a lot of my personal Central Asian jackets. I [shaved] my eyebrows partially as I believe the eyebrow shape [enhances] expressions.”

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