WHAT? Ranveer Singhs character Alauddin Khilji in Padmavati is gay?

Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor and Deepika Padukone stars in Sanjay Leela Bhansalis much awaited magnum opus Padmavati'. Sanjay Leela Bhansali who was roughed up on the sets of his latest magnum opus Padmavati by a group of men belonging to Shri Rajput Karni Sena in Jaipur last week has given the liberals a lot to complain about. This group has been unhappy with Bhansali's alleged distortion of history and wrongful portrayal of the queen of Chittor during the 13th century - Padmini and Delhi Sultanate's ruler Alauddin Khilji's obsession with her. Since then most people have come out in support of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and unleashed a vicious online campaign on how it is an infringement on creative expression.

However, the bone of contention should not be the alleged love that Khilji had for Padmini but the real story that has more juice and more meat, the love that Aluddin Khilji had for his man slave Malik Kafur. Apparently Khilji also had a weakness for beardless boys. He was fascinated by Kafur's effeminate beauty and bought the slave for a thousand Dinars during his conquest of Gujarat. Malik Kafur took advantage of Khilji's obsession with him and rose through the ranks to become Malik Naib (deputy ruler). This love affair is well documented in Tarikh-e-Firozshahi. It is believed that Alauddin Khilji had a harem of 50,000 beardless boys at the height of his empire. Rani Padmini and Allauddin Khilji had no love tryst between them. It was Padmini who committed Jauhar' with other 1600 odd Rajput women. She chose to jump into the pyre instead of getting captured and taken prisoners. Rani Padmini of Chittor is revered for her valour and has earned legendary status with a number of temples dedicated to her memory.

Esteemed writer, mythologist and author Devdutt Pattanaik has shed more light on the homosexuality of Allauddin Khilji in his article here. He wrote, "But what historians, and Bollywood, will not openly reveal is that Alauddin Khilji was known for his homosexual leanings. He bought a beautiful boy, who later became the dreaded general Malik Kafur, invader of Madurai, from a slave market in Gujarat for a thousand gold coins. Some would argue bisexuality, and even pedophilia, was the accepted practice in the hill tribes of Central Asia then. It has given rise to contemporary practices such as baccha bazi' in Afghanistan, and - when it spread to India - launda nach' of Bihar, where boys dance to music for the pleasure of older men, since women were forbidden to perform in public."

So apparently, it remains to be seen whether Sanjay Leela Bhansali has brought any homosexual leanings in his narrative and asked Ranveer Singh to play a gay character or has he played safe and stuck to the heterosexual and homophobic feelings that Bollywood loves to propogate? The answer lies in the movie, but we can safely ascertain that he hasn't researched Khilji's other deviant sexual preferences and stuck to a fabled epic poem composed by Malik Muhammad Jayasi that talks about his obsession of Rani Padmini of Chittor.