Taj Reign of Revenge director Vibhu Puri thinks Naseeruddin Shah was inspired by own father to play Akbar

Taj: Reign of Revenge director Vibhu Puri has revealed the two seasons, the other being Taj: Divided By Blood.

Were shot simultaneously by two different directors but he is glad the two have come to be in sync with each other. The first season was directed by Ronald Scalpello. Not only Ronald, even the show writers are from abroad but have managed to make a captivating show with multiple creative liberties. Vibhu says history never has a single version and one should always keep reinterpreting it to pick only the good points and avoid the mistakes that were done in the past.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Vibhu Puri opened up about working on the second season of Taj and also shared his experience of working with lead actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Aashim Gulati. He also shared his reaction to the now missing chapter of Mughal history in school textbooks in India. Excerpts:

Can we credit the show’s success to the creative liberties that have been taken in the show?
We don’t really know that because history is never neutral. Whatever history we have read, is from someone’s point of view or the other. We don’t really know what exactly happened. We spoke to a lot of historians and then came to conclusions.

This looks plausible, might have happened, let’s do this. For example, Anarkali was never a person – it was a title, like a navratan. Daniyal’s mother was a concubine and a concubine used to be a king’s favourite, she would have been an Anarkali then. Salim loved an Anarkali. We just put things together to make it more audience friendly. Our intention was to tell about the Mughal empire but in a manner that the most common denominator would be able to enjoy it and understand it. In the process, you make the audience aware of that time, those people, their likes and dislikes.