Sunny Leone
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Sunny Leone: I was called 'too fat' to be a model, PTI | Sep 11, 2016
Sunny Leone reveals in the initial stage of her career, she was called 'too fat' to be a model. In 2016 Sunny became the first Bollywood actress to walk the ramp at New York Fashion Week, and looked resplendent as the showstopper in an ivory Archana Kochhar gown.
"It was such an amazing feeling. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a model and when I turned 18, I I tried. I was told I was too short, too fat, too commercial or they were just not interested," said Leone in an email interview from New York.
A profile
India Today, August 3, 2015
Gayatri Jayaraman
The demureness is the springboard to a reinvented respectability. Born Karanjit Kaur Vohra to a Tibetan-Punjabi Sikh father and a Himachali mother, the 34-year-old Los Angeles-based Canadian adult movie actress has been openly bisexually oriented, has undergone breast enhancement, starred in straight and lesbian sex videos, been 'Penthouse Pet of the Month' in March 2001 and 'Hustler Honey' in 2001. From her debut Jism 2 (2012) to her superhit status in Ragini MMS 2 (2014) to the stuck-in-the-cans Mastizaade, she has headlined the adult genre in filmmaking over the past five years. Her production company, Sun Lust Pictures, clearly targets the adult entertainment genre. There is, make no mistake, nothing 'former' or receding about Leone's adultness.
Leone measures her market worth by clicks. That she is hated as much as she is loved, she attributes to analytics. It's the Howard Stern Syndrome, those who hate listen, read or watch more, she says. While Mahesh Bhatt once called her "clever" for not pitching herself to the mainstream space, Leone now clearly is no longer content with the fringe. Unlike the gauche Kaif debut with Boom, Leone came in with a pre-existent fan base. "When I began in 2008, people would come up to me and say 'I'm a fan' and I'd say 'But I just got here!'" she laughs. Her script choices today cater to her existing fan base while accumulating a new demographic. Once a Sunny fan, always a Sunny fan, she explains. Her numbers give her confidence. The film industry says it is what gives her, her delusions. MTV, producers of Splitsvilla which she is now hosting into Season 8, says she definitely boosts viewing. Industry argues that the fan watching her dance at a bachelor party for which she supposedly charges Rs 10 lakh does not translate into the box office numbers that make a Yash Raj Films want to cast you against an A-lister. It will never happen, they say. Leone isn't asking. "I'm creating my own space," she says. She believes her forthcoming One Night Stand in which Tanuj Virwani, Rati Agnihotri's son, makes his debut, and Jasmine D'Souza makes her directorial debut, is her break away from the sex comedy genre. That and Beimaan Love, an underdog story directed by Rajeev Chaudhuri, will propel her into the more serious cinematic environment. The industry dismisses both as "B-grade" work. Tanuj Garg, producer of Ragini MMS 2, says Leone is aware of the fact that it takes time to be taken seriously. Even as she is keenly aware that her pornographic dalliance is voluntary, she chooses now to dissociate. "Based on recent news and weird crazy stuff, I don't have a choice. They've left me no choice but to say the things I've been forced to say because there is a group of people who will do anything to destroy you," she says. She and Weber have gone above and beyond to assimilate into Indian culture, to ensure they do not break laws, to sell or endorse no pornographic material in India, to embrace the Indian way of everything.
From porn to mainstream
The Times of India, January 24, 2016
For three years, Sunny Leone remained a pariah in an image-conscious Bollywood. This week, she became the toast of the industry -and rest of India -for refusing to apologize for her choices We will be interviewing an individual who is loved and loathed in equal meas ure in our country .“ That's how journalist Bhupendra Chaubey opened his disastrous January 15 interview with actor Sunny Leone.Within hours, it was Chaubey who was besieged by a huge wave of loathing and very little love on social media. He insisted that the 34-year-old actor feel “haunted“ by her past as an adult entertainment star. This she refused to do. The result was a 30-minute cringefest which now has close to a million views on YouTube. It also, accidently , reintroduced India to Sunny Leone. For four years now, Sunny Leone has been the most searched for person in India. Yes. She beat Narendra Modi and Salman Khan. So clearly she had the nation's curiosity. But, to quote Colonel Candie from Django Unchained, did she have its respect? In a country where pornography is voraciously consumed but also furiously swept under the carpet, can the porn star ever fully cross over into the mainstream? The problem of course is that the millions who actively fantasise about Leone are also the ones who have written her off as a symbol of moral decay . It's a challenge Leone is acutely aware of. When she came to India, she came with a husband in tow and multiple declarations of monogamy. And she's also famous for focussing almost entirely on lesbian porn, which somewhat inexplicably, doesn't ruffle the feathers of the morality custodians as much. Even so, it's been a tough ride.
“At first, I definitely felt like an elephant in the room, people stare but don't want to say hi. I remember one of the first award shows that I went to, they wanted to put me on stage with another woman or any actor -they all said no,“ she told seasoned journalist Shekhar Gupta recently .
This week, Leone was the toast of Bollywood. Everyone from Alia Bhatt to Rishi Kapoor tweeted support for the actor for fielding offensive questions with such poise. “I will never let anyone get to me. I will never let anyone -man or woman -take me down. It was that spirit in me that made me continue with the interview. Also, if I walked away ,I would prove every doubt he raised about me, everything he suggested about me and my past right. I was never going to let him do that,“ Leone said to Huffington Post.
When Aamir Khan took to Twitter to disprove Chaubey's theory that mainstream male stars wouldn't work with her, he said: “Sunny , I wil b happy 2 wrk wid u. I hav absolutely no problems wid ur “past“ as the interviewer puts it. Stay blessed. Love.“
With that the vindication of Leone was now complete.
Of course, she isn't the first actor to crossover from adult to mainstream entertainment. Sylvester Stallone made his debut in a softcore porn film in the 70s long before Rocky happened. “It was either do that movie or rob someone because I was at the very end of my rope,“ he told Playboy magazine in 1978.“Instead of doing something desperate, I worked two days for $200 and got myself out of the bus station.“ But Stallone did only one such film under financial duress.Leone has about 56 porn films to her credit with no sad backstory.Sasha Grey , who debuted in Hollywood with Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, is another case in point. But Leone is attempting a crossover in India, which makes her trajectory quite a feat.
As acting goes, the general consensus is that she can't. But in this, let's be fair, she is no different from many talentless star kids who populate the film industry . In the three years since her Bollywood debut, she has had most success with roles that reference her porn career or require her to be sexually explicit in some innuendo-laden way. Because that's how India rolls. This week she has a release, Milap Zaveri's Mastizaade. The trailer has her suggestively telling Tusshar Kapoor, “Tum bhi mera doodh pee sakte ho.“ In the film, she also places coins on men's crotches before saying, “Sikka hila toh fail.“
Controversies
Top Controversies surrounding Sunny Leone
Controversy surrounding Ragini MMS 2: 'Ragini MMS 2' has raised several eyebrows due to explicit sexual content of the movie. If a shower scene was not enough, there is a kissing scene between actress Sunny Leone and Sandhya Mridul. The movie saw Sunny in a somewhat bold avatar. The content of the movie has led to several protests against the actress. Reports suggest that ahead of Sunny Leone's visit to Indore, Bajrang Dal activists raised slogans and staged protests against the adult star's visit to the city. However, this is not the first time that protests have been staged against the actress. She got similar treatment during the release of her debut 'Jism 2'.
Sunny Leone vs Kapil Sharma: Comedian Kapil Sharma plays the gracious host to Bollywood's biggest stars ahead of the release of their films on his show 'Comedy Nights With Kapil'. However, while Sunny Leone did her best to promote her movie 'Jackpot' in all reality shows, she was missing from 'Comedy Nights With Kapil'. This led to lot of tongues wagging with gossip mongers suggesting that probably Kapil did not want to host the actress due to her past. It was a shocker since actors like Shah Rukh Khan has expressed a desire to work with her and John Abraham too has grooved with her. It made Kapil seem narrow minded. However, now since the actress came with Ekta Kpoor to Kapil's sets, the controversy died a natural death.
Sunny Leone vs Kamaal R Khan: The two former contestants of 'Bigg Boss' got themselves entangled in a legal battle when they made a controversial comment about rape. The adult movie star got herself in trouble when she allegedly posted a controversial tweet on rape. Controversy king Kamaal Khan blew things out of proportion when he tweeted, ""Ye lo... Sunny Leone says - Rape is not a Crime, It's just a Surprise Sex," quoting what he claims to be a tweet she'd posted. However, Sunny denied posting such a tweet and said her account was hacked for five minutes. Sunny then filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell against Kamaal R Khan for falsely attributing controversial comments on rape to her by his Twitter account.
Jism 2 controversies: Sunny Leone's debut movie 'Jism 2' was mired with controversies. It started with allegations that the movie's sensual poster was a copy from a Felix Bendish's visual for a fashion show in 2010. Then there were protests against the vulgarity shown in the movie. Then a PIL was slammed against the actress in the Allahabad High Court. The PIL sought a stay on the release of the film, and challenged the provisions of the law which define the powers of the Censor Board in India. It also objected to the presence of an adult film actress in the movie. The PIL said that the movie had sexually explicit content, and the inclusion of Sunny Leone in the film will have an adverse moral impact on society.
The Bold and the Beautiful: Adult movie star Sunny Leone showed that she is not only a pretty face but has guts as well. She challenged the prudes by saying, "Porn star doesn't mean prostitute." She defended being an adult star and said that it's ignorance that makes people equate adult stars with prostitutes. "I think India doesn't have an adult entertainment industry - that's why people have no idea what it is." Her comments had been blown out of proportion by the media and raised lot of eyebrows.
Sunny Leone controversial stint with Bigg Boss: When the former porn star entered the Bigg Boss house in the fifth season of the show, the inmates had hundred questions in their minds about who she was. However, she managed to keep her real identity a secret and managed to win people's heart by her warm nature and sizzling smile. However, since the people outside the House did know her real identities, it led to all kinds of controversies. Complaints were lodged with the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting alleging that the Colors TV channel was promoting pornography by having the actress appear on the show, which was meant for family audience. Even her sensuous poll dance had irked a lot of people. However, she won admiration when she finally accepted on the show who she was and as a result managed to get a film offer by filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.
Indian, mainstream filmography
2012 Jism 2
2013 Jackpot
2013 Shootout at Wadala
2014 C.I.D. (TV Series) Diamond Robbery
2014 Ragini MMS2
2014 Vadacurry
