Akbar - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Music

• The violin concerto nicknamed "Il Grosso Mogul" written by Antonio Vivaldi in the 1720s, and listed in the standard catalogue as RV 208, is considered to be indirectly inspired by Akbar's reign.

Films and television

• In 2008, director Ashutosh Gowariker released a film telling the story of Akbar and his wife Hira Kunwari (known more popularly as Jodha Bai), titled Jodhaa Akbar. Akbar was played by Hrithik Roshan and Jodhaa was played by Aishwarya Rai.
• Akbar was portrayed in the award-winning 1960 Hindi movie Mughal-e-Azam (The great Mughal), in which his character was played by Prithviraj Kapoor.
• Akbar and Birbal were portrayed in the Hindi series Akbar-Birbal aired on Zee TV in late 1990s where Akbar's role was essayed by Vikram Gokhale.
• A television series, called Akbar the Great, directed by Akbar Khan was aired on DD National in the 1990s.

Fiction

• A fictionalized Akbar plays an important supporting role in Kim Stanley Robinson's 2002 novel, The Years of Rice and Salt.
• Akbar is also a major character in Salman Rushdie's 2008 novel The Enchantress of Florence.
• Amartya Sen uses Akbar as a prime example in his books The Argumentative Indian and Violence and Identity.
• Bertrice Small is known for incorporating historical figures as primary characters in her romance novels, and Akbar is no exception. He is a prominent figure in two of her novels, and mentioned several times in a third, which takes place after his death. In This Heart of Mine the heroine becomes Akbar's fortieth "wife" for a time, while Wild Jasmine and Darling Jasmine centre around the life of his half-British daughter, Yasaman Kama Begum (alias Jasmine).
• In Kunal Basu's The Miniaturist, the story revolves around a young painter during Akbar's time who paints his own version of the Akbarnamu
• Akbar is mentioned as 'Raja Baadshah' in the Chhattisgarhi folktale of "Mohna de gori kayina"
• Akbar is the main character in Empire of the Moghul: Ruler of the World by Alex Rutherford, the third book in a quintet based on the five great Mughal Emperors of the Mughal Dynasty.
• Akbar is the protagonist in Dirk Collier's historical novel The Emperor's Writings, Memories of Akbar the Great (Delhi, 2011), a fictional autobiography in which Akbar speaks to his son Jahangir, via a series of posthumous letters.
• Akbar features prominently in David Davidar's 2007 novel, The Solitude of Emperors.

Video games

• Akbar is featured in the video game Sid Meier's Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword as a "great general" available in the game.
• Akbar is also the AI Personality of India in the renowned game Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties.