Mumbai, Feb 22 (IANS): Actor, writer and director Rahul Bose, who will be seen in the upcoming web series 'Taj - Divided by Blood', has shared what prompted him to take up the project and also briefed about his role in the series.

Rahul, who plays Mirza Muhammad Hakim, the third son of the Mughal Emperor Humayun, said: "I felt that the role was very well-edged. I thought that the big attraction was to act opposite Naseeruddin Shah, play his fundamentalist stepbrother and portray a conflicted relationship. I think these were the two main reasons that the role was well-edged.

"I had a very fruitful conversation with Ron Scalpello (director) in terms of his conceptualisation of the character and the way it was written."

He also talked about his interest in Mughal history, saying: "I am well-versed as anybody else who read history in school, may be a little bit more than that. What's fascinating about the Mughal Empire are the particular traits of particular emperors from what we have read and heard, whether it was Humayun or Shah Jahan or Akbar."

"The one that was most written about is Akbar and his entire commitment to a syncretic kind of way of dealing with religion and his subjects, which is very interesting and I wanted to see how this show is going to handle that," said the actor known for his films 'Mr. and Mrs. Iyer', 'Jhankaar Beats', 'Chameli', 'Pyaar Ke Side Effects', and 'Midnight's Children', among others.

Set in the 16th century, 'Taj - Divided by Blood' is about Mughal Emperor Akbar and the war of transfer of power among his three sons, Salim, Murad and Daniyal. It features Naseeruddin Shah, Dharmendra, Aditi Rao Hyadri, Rahul Bose, Zarina Wahab, Sandhya Mridul and Aashim Gulati, among others.

'Taj - Divided by Blood' will release on Zee 5 on March 3.