The Empire faces backlash just a day after its release

The Empire, a series created by filmmaker Nikkhil Advani, premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on August 27. The epic period-action-drama, based on Alex Rutherford's "Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North," traces the saga of an empire from the Ferghana Valley to Samarkhand and beyond. Kunal Kapoor, who is making his digital debut with the eight-episode series, stars alongside Shabana Azmi, Drashti Dhami, Dino Morea, Aditya Seal, Sahher Bambba, and Rahul Dev in the role of Mughal emperor Babur.

The show, however, has faced a barrage of social media criticism. The series has been chastised online for "glorifying" the Mughals, according to viewers. On Saturday morning, Twitter trended with the hashtags "Ban The Empire Series" and "Uninstall Hotstar."

The hashtag '#UninstallHotstar' started trending on Twitter, causing the online streaming platform Hotstar to face backlash. According to reports, the online streaming platform is seeing a surge in interest for the show. Complaints about the series were sent to the grievance officer appointed under the Information Technology (Guidelines for intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. However, after Hotstar dismissed complaints that the series glorifies Mughal invader Babur, Twitter users continued to express their displeasure with the trend, which was at the top of the trending list at a time.

According to the IT rules, digital news media and online publishers must follow the rules' 'Code of Ethics.'