Ranveer Singh fans, are you prepared for a shock? Deepika Padukone, as Rani Padmini, will not be his sole love interest in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama Padmavati. The actor’s character Allaudin Khilji is bisexual! And Ranveer, who has admitted to wanting to experiment with every kind of role, is throwing himself into this grey character, not just heart and soul… but the body as well!
Sources say that Ranveer effortlessly plays the bisexual Sultan of Delhi with a touch of evil genius that has to be seen. And playing his lover on screen is the actor Jim Sarbh who was the baddie in Raabta and the main hijacker in Neerja. Jim’s character is Malik Kafur who history books say was Khilji’s chief advisor and also his lover.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is reported to be fascinated by the love affair that existed between Khilji and Kafur but there was always some doubt whether the filmmaker would explore this side of Khilji’s character in Padmavati. Now comes confirmation that he is going ahead. Sources aware of this development said, “Khilji will be shown having feelings for Kafur and Bhansali has shot these scenes in a subtle manner so as not to hurt anybody’s sentiments.”
According to the 13-century book Tarikh-e-Firozshahi by political thinker Ziya al-Din Barani, Khilji had a weakness for beardless boys. And he was fascinated by the effeminate Kafur and ended up buying him as a slave for a 1,000 Dinars during his conquest of Gujarat. Khilji reportedly had almost 50,000 beardless boys in his harem at the height of his empire.
The same book also documents there was no love between Rani Padmini and Khilji. Though he never actually met the Rajput Queen, one glimpse of her made the Sultan of Delhi fall madly in love. But Padmini, rather than being captured by Khilji, is said to have committed jauhar (self-immolation) with 1,600 other Rajput women.
While Bollywood has toyed with bisexuality before, this is the first time that Ranveer who has women swooning over him will play such a bold role. The actor is unapologetic about his choices. In an interview for the TV show No Filter with Neha Dhupia Season 2, he was candid about playing such roles and said he had no reservations.
Trade sources who are keenly following the rocky process of SLB’s Padmavati so far are wondering how the aggressive Rajput caste organization Karni Sena will react to the bisexual love scenes in the film. Its members agitated on Padmavati’s sets earlier when a dream sequence not recorded in history was to be shot on Ranveer and Deepika.
