If I ever meet Sunny Leone, I’d like to tell her just how much I adore her. I imagine I shall be completely tongue-tied (the same way I imagine myself turning into a humanoid hole in the ground when I meet Shah Rukh Khan) – but then these are the only two folks in cinema I’d imagine warranting such inanity.
It’s Sunny’s birthday today, and I can think of no better way to wish her than to salute her for the way she’s shaken up Bollywood.
Sunny Leone – born Karenjit Kaur Vohra in 1981 – has been viewed under sweaty bedsheets for years before she entered Bollywood, although not many ’fessed up (the sounds of a moral collective probably drowning out the sounds of a guilt-ridden libido).
But here’s how Sunny handles detractors – with the most delicious hint of sarcasm:
We, on our part, have fallen in love with Sunny on many, many occasions. Over and over again.
Here are only a select few instances of awesomeness…
When She Advertised a Condom Brand…
Let’s cut the bullcrap, shall we? We’re among the highest consumers of porn in the world, and yet every mainstream actor worth their salt (and their next-door non-actor cousin) will pretend like it doesn’t happen? Nobody’s agreed to advertise a condom brand in years – till Sunny stepped up.
Not only did that effectively put a face to safe, consensual sex (god knows we needed one), but it also spurred another, far more popular advertisement featuring Ranveer Singh (for Durex). Ranveer was golden, yes, and deserved all the accolades – but let’s not forget Miss Leone led the brigade when no one else did.
When She Kicked the Butt... With Alok Nath!
Then, there was the different kind of advertising – only proving to the world that she could take on pretty much any worthy cause. The ad was quirky and punchy – very idiosyncratically Sunny – and also starred a certain Alok Nath (in case, you were still looking for shallow ‘mainstream’ connectors).
A far cry from the husky voiceovers and ‘tar-squeezing’ visuals in theatres that people largely ignore, Sunny was her effervescent best!
When She Wrote Her Mind on Sex...
We’ll say it like it is. Sunny’s book of erotica, Sweet Dreams, was no great shakes at literature. But then, it never said it would be. Rack your brains for just a minute – and see if you can come up with ONE other actor who’s dared to write literary porn. Sunny wrote unapologetically – albeit with rather abysmal storylines – of men and women wanting to have sex, talking about sex – and not ashamed of it.
If for nothing else, Sunny easily wins for being the bravest writer to come out of Bollywood in a long, long time...
Also Read: Her Bravest: Sunny Paves the Way for Unapologetic Writing of Sex
When She Put the Media in its Place…
Long before Kangana’s explosive repartees, Sunny showed the way to taking on media misogyny with gumption. In what is a now-infamous television interview, Bhupendra Chaubey nudged and clutched at every straw to get Sunny to admit she’d made “past mistakes”. Sunny smiled, shrugged, laughed, but NEVER apologised. At one point, when the interviewer insisted on knowing how she felt about comments that she “was morally corrupting minds”, Sunny suggested she could leave if he liked.
You go, girl!
Here’s the full interview of her awesomeness:
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