Mitakshara Kumar is making her directorial debut with The Empire, a sprawling period actioner releasing on Disney+ Hotstar on August 27. The show stars actor Kunal Kapoor as Mughal Emperor Babur. It explores Babur's early rise and is based on Alex Rutherford's novel series Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North. 

 Mitakshara studied direction at The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). She has previously assisted on films like Bluffmaster!, Rajjo and Bajirao Mastani. 

Talking about her directorial debut, Mitakshara said, “When I got The Empire, because the scale was so large, I never treated it like a show. For me it was cinema and that’s how we shot it. We have given attention to every minute detail - I hope that The Empire is an experience people won’t forget!”

On her research process, she added, “A lot of our referencing had to be done in Uzbekistan, so we went there three times. The colors they used; the architecture, are so different. That predominantly became my color for one part of the show. Our show tells stories over many years, hence there is a color palette for every phase in the show.”

The Empire also features Shabana Azmi, Drashti Dhami, Dino Morea, Aditya Seal, Sahher Bambba, Rahul Dev and. The 8-part series is co-written by Mitakshara with Bhavani Iyer. It is created by Nikkhil Advani.