Actress Sunny Leone is more than just a glamour quotient; she is a successful entrepreneur, a perfect mommy, a darling wife, and a top-notch professional. Well, she’s been representing not just herself but the nation at the global level.
For this week’s Celeb Talk, The Pioneer’s tejal sinha connects with her as she shares her feelings on walking the red carpet at Cannes, handling negativity with grace, working in south cinema, and more.
Actress Sunny Leone’s endearing personality is enough to win anyone’s heart, anytime, anywhere! It’s definitely going to be safe to say that, just like one of her most viral songs, Baby Doll, she surely is one of them in the entertainment industry.
Her journey has been an inspiration for many. The actress, who started her journey on the most controversial show, Bigg Boss, is now one of the panelists of Bigg Boss OTT season 2 (janata ki awaaz). Today she represented her talent on a global level, as she recently made her debut at the Cannes Film Festival for one of her upcoming films, Kennedy, directed by Anurag Kashyap.
And one thing that we surely cannot forget to mention is how she turned heads and shined through her fashion. From wandering up and down to having no sleep and then making her debut on the red carpet, Sunny enjoyed all of it with beer and skittles.
Well, after making all the heads turn around with her beauty at Cannes, Sunny travelled all the way to the Sydney Film Festival. And we managed to connect to her and bring you some exclusive tidbits about her experience, her journey from Jism 2 to Kennedy, her husband Daniel being her biggest support, and more.
Something that one cannot ignore is the enormity of being a part of these film festivals — a dream for many, in fact. But did this enormity hit her? She gleefully enthuses, “The enormity of it all definitely hit me while I was out there. When we were walking towards the Lumiere theatre and saw two thousand five hundred people, all watching the same movie, all clapping at the same time, the standing ovation — I mean, it was all amazing. Walking that red carpet and just seeing it all was above and beyond.”
Now, when we talk about film festivals, these festivals have become excessively fixated on glitz and glamour, leaving the true essence of cinema somewhat obscured. Well, at least that’s what some film personalities had to say. Since the Kennedy star was there at the festival, what does she have to tell us about this? Let’s hear it from her: “I think that, yes, it is about the gowns, and all of that, the glamour, being there, and the beautiful people that are there, people from all around the world, all gathered into one place.
That is the experience of Cannes, and then there’s the experience of actually having your movie there; those are, I believe, two different things. Having the film there and being there as one of the actors or artists is above and beyond any feeling. I think only a few out of the thousands of people out there get to experience that.”
In 2012, it was with Pooja Bhatt’s erotic thriller Jism 2 that she got her breakthrough into Bollywood and went on to star in several films, including Ragini MMS 2, Jackpot, and Ek Paheeli Leela, to name a few. Apart from starring as the lead, she’s also won hearts with her special appearances in songs like Pink Lips (Hate Story 2), Laila (Raees), Piya More (Baadshaho), Trippy Trippy (Bhoomi), and many more. Be it her debut in Jism 2 or her global debut with Kennedy, Sunny had her own share of ups and downs.
“My journey so far from Jism 2 to Kennedy has been unbelievable,” gushes Sunny, adding, “It comes with the good, the bad, and the ugly. All the amazing things that have happened — the work, the fans — and all the crazy and not-so-great things — I think all go hand in hand with Kennedy, and being at Cannes has been something that is an indescribable feeling.”
The bond that Sunny and her husband, Daniel Weber, share is beyond adorable. While people say that a wife’s support plays a very important role in not just a husband’s life but his success too, lucky are those who get equal support from their husbands. And you can just not stop adoring the way Daniel has been like a backbone for Sunny throughout.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without his support. He allows me to be myself. I mean that in the most serious way. He has been there through all the crazy, trying to break all the barriers, and being there when all the amazing things have happened. He is really the reason that everything is going the way it is,” says the ‘Baby Doll’.
It’s hard to stay positive and compassionate when someone around you is an energy drain. And if you’re a known personality or a celeb, there’s a lot that one deals with on a daily basis, which can also impact their mental health and peace. On handling all of it and making sure the negativity doesn’t affect her mental peace, she says, “Handling all the negativity has not been easy. It’s obviously not fun to go through it. I think actions speak louder than words. I have tried to maintain a certain level of integrity and respect for other people’s feelings without letting them know how I feel about them.
I think that trying to push past it, figure out the positive, and really understand the psychology behind why people are that way really helps me get through that negativity. I don’t personally have any hatred towards people, and I don’t need to be that horrible or mean to them. I am always misunderstood. But reading about why the human brain does certain things helps me out.” Sunny is more than just a glamour quotient.
Her films are an example of it. However, she believes: “Glamour is a part of being an actor and an entertainer. The reason why we love certain people, want to follow them, and want to watch their films is because we find them glamorous, sexy, or beautiful, or we imagine ourselves one day being that person. To all the readers out there, I love all those people who follow me because they think I’m glamorous, and to the people who thought I couldn’t do it, just watch Kennedy. I hope you like it, and I hope that it changes your feelings about me.”
Not just in the Hindi film industry but also down south, she’s received immense love, and why not? Elated with the love that she’s received from the south’s industry and the fans, the Ginna actress says, “My experience down south has been, again, quite amazing. I have gotten so much support, even at the beginning of my career when we used to do analytics on where the fans were coming from.
Where the traffic comes from, it is always from the south. I feel very proud to be a part of some amazing projects down there and to always see so much love.” Well, going further as to how she manages to gracefully tittle-tattle the dialogues in the Southern language, she says, “I practised a lot, learning those dialogues.
But if you asked me two weeks later what those dialogues were, of course, I would be struggling. I am that student who memorises for that test, completes the test, and takes it out of the other ear. But I try to retain as much information as possible.” For the Oh My Ghost actress, all her projects have been different, which makes her gravitate towards certain things.
Of course, Sunny, who has two upcoming projects coming up down south, says, “There are certain projects where the director, producer, actors, and other people with whom I really want to work make it very easy to say yes. For the other ones, where I play the lead, I guess it depends on everything, from the producers and actors to how it’s going to be promoted other than the story and character, and whether I believe that it is for me.”
