Some quotable quote this: “Animals need safe sex too!”, courtesy Bollywood’s numero uno sex symbol Sunny Leone.
Lately La Leone jetted to Los Angeles to attend the 35th anniversary gala of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. Other spokespersons for PETA, included Paul McCartney who needs no re-introduction, the powerhouse actress Angelica Houston, and Pamela Anderson who made bikinis her dress code in the TV series Baywatch. Impressive company.
After rubbing shoulders with the biggies and flashing smiles wider than the Howrah Bridge for the paparazzi, our Numero Uno returned to Mumbai to whip the Kerala state machinery for its bid to nab stray dogs, who it seems aren’t tourist friendly. How can Kerala’s officials be so cruel, she rued, instantly winning over the constituency of canine lovers.
Shot to Fame
Now that’s just another curious episode in the rise and rise of Karenjit Kaur Vohra – born 34 years ago to Punjabi Sikh parents in Ontario. Currently, she’s Bollywood’s hottest ticket to draw recalcitrant viewers back to the multiplexes and more so, to the surviving single screen theatres in townships. Her pin-ups can be found in dhabas and in auto-rickshaws alongside those of Priyanka Chopra and ace cricketers.
She has clicked where other sex symbols have crashed, be it yesteryear’s Playboy bunny Katy Mirza, the barely recallable Faryal and Komila Virk, or Rakhi Sawant who sought to join politics (in vain). Once upon a time, Rakhi Sawant may have been invited to a fine-dine restaurant by Yash and Avanti Birla but her 15 minutes of fame (give or take a minute) is frequently credited to her pithy statement, “Jo dikhta hai who bikta hai” (“What can be seen, sells”), worthy of a line of dialogue coined by the master punch-liners Salim-Javed.
Sunny Leone’s quotables, however, have safely hinged around animal life. Under the stewardship of her husband, Daniel Weber, she pooh-poohs interviews unless it’s for one of her films under impending release. And she seems to be more than aware that the fact that she has acted in 56 porn films (correction: adult films) and directed as many as 59 (now, that’s a twist) has merely contributed to her allure.
Myriad Perceptions
For the mandarins, she’s a guilty pleasure. For the male hoi polloi, she’s a female Salman Khan, endowed with a body which leaves nothing to the imagination. In a business, where heroines fuss and fret about itsy bitsy bikinis and peekaboo sarongs, and go coy before planting a kiss on Emraan Hashmi’s ever ready lips, here’s a woman who’s the Censor Board’s nightmare and the repressed Indian male’s dream-come-true.
Am I sounding sexist? No way! On the contrary, I’d say bully for La Leone. To that I’d add forget the rest, even her face is accountable for her fortune. Evidence: MMS Ragini 2 in which she looked drop-dead ravishing. I wouldn’t rave about her acting skills though. She seems to have big-time trouble in allowing her eyes to do the talking for her, they look drop-dead-expressionless. But what the hell! Take Katrina Kaif, whose most expressive performance yet, can be evidenced in an ad film, going gaga over a mango refreshment.
Name Selling Like Hot Cakes
Ms Leone may not be in the A-list of proper leading ladies but ask the tradewallas and they’ll light up like Christmas trees, if you have a Leone in the credit titles, even if it’s an item number. She looked downright crude in Shootout at Wadala (yuck, that deep cleavage plunging outfit) but managed a sufficiently exotic war drone for Ek Paheli- Leela, presenting her in the dual role of a haute couture model from Milan and a rustic village belle. Bizarre, yes, nevertheless a moderate success at the cash counters.
According to the tradewallas, she charges Rs 2 crore-plus a film and an undisclosed amount for ad endorsements, not to forget ceaseless appearances at assorted concerts and TV shows.
And a super-slick filmmaker has been waiting for more than three months for an appointment. “I’m sure, she’ll love my script,” he says optimistically. “It’s a supernatural film with shades of The Exorcist. I could go to Bipasha Basu but then she’s been slotted as a Scream Queen. Sunny commands a bigger market.”
Taking the Net By a Storm
On the Internet, she has an astonishingly regular fan following, exceeding that of Kangana Ranaut, Deepika Padukone and Kareena Kapoor. Webzine editors say that any Sunny story even if it’s a staid one – like that of her brother, Sundeep Vohra, a chef at the Kings Row Gastropub in California – commands global interest. In a couple of words, she’s happening.
In sharp contrast to Barbara Mori, the Mexican actress, who despite a prestigious project – Kites – in the company of Hrithik Roshan, couldn’t make it, big-time or small-time in Bollywood.
Inevitably sex symbols have a short self-life. Sunny’s been at it for 15 years, though, kicking off with the Penthouse video, Virtual Harem (2002).
I haven’t ever met her, or caught a glimpse of her in real life. I wouldn’t want to. Simply because I’d rather snag an appointment for that filmmaker of the supernatural kind.
More to the point, what could I ask her but the predictable question, “What makes you tick Sunnyji?”
The answer, I guess, would be, “I don’t know. You tell me.”
And I’d probably mumble, “Your guts maybe?”
(The writer is a film critic, filmmaker, theatre director and a weekend painter)
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