By Aarti Kapur Singh
From adult flicks to family films, Sunny Leone’s come a long, long way
She’s aware that some popular actors have refused to work with her due to her past body of work as an adult star, but Indo-Canadian talent Sunny Leone has no regrets. She is focussed on making people take her “seriously as an actress”, and says she’d love to work with Bollywood’s Khan trio.
Sunny Leone entered Indian showbiz via reality show ‘Bigg Boss 5’, and went on to bag a role in ‘Jism 2’. Since then, the actress has starred in films like ‘Jackpot’ and ‘Ragini MMS 2’, while also gyrating to item numbers like ‘Laila’, ‘Pink lips’ and ‘Baby doll’, and has already hosted a TV show titled ‘MTV Splitsvilla’.
Now geared up for her new releases ‘Ek Paheli Leela’ and ‘Kuch Kuch Locha Hai’, Sunny is quite gung-ho about her future. But she says that she’s not here to compete with the Khans. “I want to work with them – Salman, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, they are huge megastars. I have met Shah Rukh he is a nice man, Aamir is on my bucket list, and if I get a chance to work with Salman, I would love to work with him,” Sunny told IANS recently.
Her ‘Ek Paheli Leela’ director has been talking about how some big names refused to work with Sunny in the film. Of course, it’s natural for the 33-year-old to feel bad about this but she says philosophically, “I don’t see it that way. I just look forward to whatever I like to do. If actors don’t want to be part of a project because of me, what can I do? I can’t do anything about it. Everything happens for a reason in life.”
“Of course, I feel bad. But I can’t erase my past, nor do I want to. After each film, I pray that people take me more seriously as an actress,” added Sunny.
‘Kuch Kuch Locha Hai’ is a family film, and is perhaps Sunny’s first ‘UA’ rated film. Could this be a change in tactics for the actress?
“My next is a family film with Ram Kapoor and is, I think, the first movie that comes out as a ‘U’ rated film. After my song ‘Baby doll’, I have many young fans,” claimed the actress, who has been going all out to promote ‘Ek Paheli Leela’.
Sunny admits that she was a ‘baby’ on entering the film industry, but now she has ‘learnt to walk’ the path in filmdom.
“The set is my workshop and I learn something from there every day. I learn many things when I am on the sets,” she said.
Her stay in the Bigg Boss house also motivated Sunny to get into the Bollywood stint.
Sunny has also been adjudged as the most searched for celebrity on Google for a second consecutive time. “I am happy that people are interested in me and my work. My strength to keep pushing forward comes from numbers, and all I want to do is just work more and more to keep beating these numbers. I won’t stop till I drop!” said Sunny, expressing her happiness over this record and confirming her determination to do better, whatever the odds.
The actress will be seen in a totally different avatar in ‘Ek Paheli Leela’, and admitted that it was very challenging for her to transform into the character of Leela. “It was a very challenging role,” said Sunny adding, “When I read the script I loved it. But the process of actually becoming Leela would take 2-3 hours. On the first day, I took 6 hours to finalise the look.”
“I received a lot of support in the form of good people in my team. The dialogues for Leela were difficult as well. So learning all that was difficult. But I think when people watch it they will see all the hard work that was put into this role,” she added.
‘Ek Paheli Leela’ also stars Jay Bhanushali, Rajneesh Duggal and Rahul Dev in prominent roles, and has been largely shot in Jodhpur. Surprisingly, the film received a green flag by the Censor Board without much delay.
A source from the CBFC says, “They asked for an ‘A’ certificate with no cuts. We asked them to cut one shot of a woman rubbing colour on her breast during Holi. Otherwise we’ve not touched any of the scenes including the lengthy love-making scene of Ms Leone with Rajneesh Duggal.”
Ahmed Khan, producer of the film confirmed this saying, “They chopped off just one shot of a breast, and it isn’t Sunny Leone’s. We are very relieved! We thought there would be a lot of trouble considering Ms Leone’s reputation precedes her at the censor office.”
Looks like the future is bright and sunny for this rising star!