Naseeruddin Shah slams those asking to choose between Tipu Sultan, Ram Mandir: 'Man gave his life to drive English away'

Naseeruddin Shah, who plays Mughal Emperor Akbar in the upcoming web series Taj, has waded intro controversy with his recent statement where he has said the Mughals and medieval rulers like Tipu Sultan are needlessly villainised in India. The veteran actor discussed the current discourse about Mughal and Muslim rulers from medieval India.

When asked if there is a space for an intellectual conversation right now, Shah told Indian Express, “no, absolutely not,” adding that the discourse is at an all-time low. He then further said, “Tipu Sultan is vilified! A man who gave his life to drive the English away. (And it’s now said), ‘Do you want Tipu Sultan or the Ram Temple?’ I mean, what kind of logic is this? I don’t think there is room for debate, because they can’t ever see my point of view and I can’t ever see theirs.”

The actor added that maybe Mughals have been over-glorified but they need not be villainised either. “So what people are saying is to some extent true, that the Mughals have been glorified at the expense of our own indigenous traditions. Perhaps that’s true, (But) there is no need to villainize them either. If everything they did was horrible, then knock down the Taj Mahal, knock down the Red Fort, knock down Qutub Minar. Why do we consider the Red Fort sacred, it was built by a Mughal. We need not glorify them, but there is no need to vilify them either,” Naseeruddin Shah added.

In January, during a BJP workers’ convention in Bengaluru, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that people need to choose between PM Narendra Modi, who built the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, and 'those who glorify Tipu Sultan'.

Taj – Divided by Blood, is a new web series centred on the Mughal dynasty during the rule of Emperor Akbar and the civil war between his sons with Shah playing the emperor. The series also stars Aashim Gulati, Taha Shah Badussha, Shubham Kumar Mehra, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sandhya Mridul, and Dharmendra. The show will begin streaming on Zee5 from March 3.