Actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada has stirred up a controversy by coming out of the blue with a statement saying Alauddin Khilji’s character in Padmaavat reminded her of controversial Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan. Speaking to a news site, she also said that she was “harassed” by Khan during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in which she was contesting and which caused a crisis in the party for which he was expelled. Their bitter rivalry surfaced in 2012 with Jaya vowing to destroy Khan’s “arrogance”.

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The role of Khilji, the 13th century Sultan of Delhi, was played by Ranveer Singh in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s controversial period dramaPadmaavat. The film shows Khilji as a barbarian, bisexual Muslim conqueror capable of unimaginable cruelty. It was Khan who brought Jaya to Rampur from where the former actress contested and won her Lok Sabha seat. She won the Rampur seat by over 85,000 votes that year. But Jaya’s proximity to Amar Singh led Azam to become became a bitter and vocal critic of her.