Sunny Leone: A woman indulging in a one night stand is ridiculed

Coming straight from a foreign land, Sunny Leone had no contacts, no experience and no Godfather to help her get an entry in Bollywood. But still, today, she is one of the familiar faces in B-Town. She has had a tough time, a lot of twists, a lot of turns, but she bravely withstood the test of time and here she is, featuring with one of the most powerful Khans of the industry – Shah Rukh Khan.

We caught up with her in an interview wherein she spoke at length about her upcoming film ‘One Night Stand’, the challenges she faced and how the recent controversies, like that of an unpleasant interview with Bhupendra Chaubey and the recent ‘Journalist Slap-gate’ incident, affect her…    

Excerpts…

Her opinion on one night stands…

Sunny says, “If you are single and your physical emotions take over your brain for a single night, then it’s a prerogative. Your intimate moments should be just with you and that’s it. But you need to think twice if you already have a partner.” Judging one night stand in the Indian context, she adds, “I think that there’s a double standard which is verbally said out loud, I think one night stands happen a lot more than they are perceived. Intimate moments are not something that people go launching off, people are not comfortable talking about.’

About the characters from the film…

Sunny Leone’s character in the film is of that lady who decides to act on a moment without considering the repercussions of that act. She says, “One night stand was a wrong decision and every action has a reaction and the characters in the film face these consequences throughout the film. Especially the young lady who decides to have a one night stand. I hated my character, she has such a beautiful life and she decides to act on a moment and her life dependent on that moment. Even Tanuj’s character acts on the moment and everything gets destroyed.”

So why did she take up this character?

She exerts, “The story was a lot different than the thing that I have done in the past. I like the idea of touching the subject of gender equality. If a woman indulges in one night stand, then she is ridiculed and looked down upon! There are so many double standard subjects that need to be talked about and I think that happens throughout the film with my character. My character in the film has strong moments wherein she talks about gender equality.”

The  challenges she faced…

“I had nothing in common with the character. I could not relate to her… It was hard for me to shoot and believe in what I was saying. I have not gone through anything as such, but I had the belief in my director. I had to take many workshops and the conversation on sets with the crew members helped me a lot. There were times when the crew members wanted me to shut up arguing and shoot the scene, but I had to understand my character.”

On working with a relatively new actor Tanuj Virwani…

“He is a nice person and that’s what matters the most. As the time went by, we got to know each other and he is a respectful person and a goofy individual. He was very excited with all the things around and the director had to work on us a lot.”

So then how was it working with senior actor Shah Rukh Khan…

 “I am so excited and it is such a proud moment for me and my husband to work with Shah Rukh Khan because it is only we who know what we have gone through. The heartache and the bad things that have happened in the past, and in such time somebody like Shah Rukh Khan invites you to be a part of his film; then that’s amazing. I will always be thankful to him for giving me this opportunity.” Sunny even got emotional when she saw the first shot of the song featuring her and SRK in one frame and then she went up to Shah Rukh and said ‘thank you’ and she said she thanked king Khan to an extent where he could have got annoyed. (laughs)

How did she cope up with the bad things (unpleasant interview with Bhupendra Chaubey)…

“It took me a lot of time to wrap my head around what’s happening. I just thought after one uncomfortable question, he might stop. But, he didn’t. It was only when I went back to the US and cut off myself with my phone, interviews and everything, that I could heal from the interview. I didn’t stop the interview, no one else around me stopped it and I was in shock. In retrospect, it just helped me reach an inch closer to where I want to be.”

Further, she accepts that she is a soft target but she can’t do anything about it. She just brushes off the negativity around her and her goal in life is to work. She does not care with what other says.

Talking about the journalist slap-gate incident…

“That was non-sense. I am anti-violence and the fact that they didn’t get an interview, they can’t go on publishing anything.” She exerted that Surat trip was a mess and there was no chance of slapping anyone.

On being vocal about the slap-gate incident as compared to the degrading interview, she says…

“In the interview, everybody saw it. I was present to defend myself. But when Mid-Day published the news of me slapping a journalist in Surat, I wasn’t present to defend myself. Hence, I took to Twitter to clarify myself and they came up with a stupid excuse for not authenticating the story before publishing it saying that they did not have Daniel’s (Weber, her husband and manager) number which is obviously a lie, because Daniel is very active and is on everybody’s speed dial.”

Moving back to her film, ‘One Night Stand’, she doesn’t think that her film would get affected with the films releasing that week to be her competition. She just hopes that all the films make the money at the box office.

Such a graceful lady!

Also Read: Will Karan Johar invite Sunny Leone on ‘Koffee With Karan’?

Nikita Thakkar

A strongly opinionated, free-spirited, budding Bollywood journalist, she likes to write anything in her own quirky style. When not running around to get assigned tasks completed, you will find her either painting, indulging in photography or dreaming in the la la land.