India loves its film stars. No, we worship them. Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir - unconditionally and uncritically. We even overlook the fact that at least one of them may be guilty of murder. However, throw a Sunny Leone into the mix and suddenly, we don’t know what to do or how to react to her. On Ms Leone’s birthday we admit that even though we love her, we have a hard time saying it out loud.
We Love Sunny, but We’ll Never Admit It
We love Sunny, but we’re in a fix. We SHOULDN’T love her, she’s ‘bad.’ She’s a porn star; she’s had sex on camera, and we’ve watched her sneakily. Outside, where people can hear, we’ll make a noise about how she’s ‘corrupting’ impressionable young minds, ‘distracting’ loving husbands, and ‘destroying’ families. To this, I have one thing to say: You’re a hypocrite; admit it.
Hide behind your computer screens all you want, but remember, the Internet knows what you’re doing. It’s well known that Sunny Leone was the most searched person on Google in India. It’s no surprise. She’s hot, she was a porn star and is now an actress.
Sunny Leone Always Has Answers and They’re Always Good
Ever since she has been in the ‘acceptable’ public eye (Bollywood, not porn), she has been subject to repeated ‘loaded’ questions from the media. But Sunny’s held her own in the most dignified and calm manner. No, she doesn’t regret her stint in the adult film industry. When a senior journalist almost accused her of ‘stealing husbands of Indian housewives’, pat came her reply: “Ladies, I don’t want your husbands. I have mine; he’s talented, sexy and I love him very much.”
Sunny has also categorically said that she will never disown her past, because it is her past that has brought her here, into the limelight and Bollywood. Sunny, much to our delight, is unapologetic and refuses to play the victim. “It’s not like somebody forced me to do something I didn’t want to.”
There is much the rest of the film industry can learn from Sunny. She is down-to-earth, brutally and even refreshingly, honest. “Actresses don’t like to share the stage with me,” she says. In the same interview, she goes on to say, “It is only after I came to Bollywood that it became ‘okay’ to say the name Sunny Leone”. She has no delusions about herself or about the ‘outcaste’ place that’s been left for her in the industry.
Sunny Leone also has realistic and modest expectations from her Bollywood career. She’s often said that it’s highly unlikely for her to win an award because of her background.
Why Turn Sunny Into a Caricature of the Sanskari Nari ?
Whatever your views on her choice of films might be, remember, she is handed a certain kind of script because producers are cashing in on her porn star fame. Every film Sunny signs, there is no doubt that she will ensure the film makes a killing at the box office. Along with all the men who will turn up to ‘watch’. And, despite the fact that we’re all watching her – whether on a porn site or in a Bollywood movie – we love to cast moral aspersions on her career choices and by extension, on her ‘character’ as well.
We’d like to believe that it’s all hedonism on the sets of her films as she’s cozying up with the other men she shares intimate screen space with. We want her to feel guilty for all the porn we are watching. We’ve regressed and we’re using the old, old argument – she seduced us; it’s her fault.
(This story was first published on January 18th, 2016)
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