Sunny Leone: Star of India

Nevertheless, Leone became a poster girl there for the porn industry. Anurag Thakur, a member of India’s parliament and the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, was one of many people who filed complaints with the country’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry about her being on the show. When Leone’s first feature film, Jism 2, an erotic thriller, was released in 2012, film posters were burned in streets and objectors threatened to throw eggs at her if she showed up at the premiere. And when protests erupted all over India following a spate of gruesome sexual assaults on women and children, Leone was held accountable by anti-porn campaigners. She agreed to participate in a panel debate on national television, where she argued that blaming porn for rape is “complete nonsense.”

Figuring out how to market Leone in India has required a heady dose of cultural psychology. The release of her second feature, Ragini MMS 2, a horror film, has been delayed, allowing time for the firestorm around Jism 2 to die down. And though she is frequently asked, Leone refuses to do endorsements for lingerie companies. She did, however, agree to promote a condom company, because, she says, “the way they shot it was classy, and I like the idea of promoting safe sex. It’s good. There are 1 billion people here. Everyone should be safe.”

Leone and Weber have learned that they must keep Southern California and Bollywood separate. “The two don’t touch,” Leone says of her double career. “They don’t intermingle.” Weber puts it this way: “It’s like the magician with the two spinning plates. If they touch, they fall.” Still, there is some gray area that even Leone and Weber don’t always understand. The curiosity about her is animated by a different kind of tension, she says. The question seems not to be “What is she like with her clothes off?”—the answer to that is all over the Internet—but rather “What is she like with her clothes on?” So inconceivable is the idea that someone would make porn for a living and also be Indian. “Did you hear what that guy said at lunch?” Leone asks Weber one afternoon, referring to an admirer who had asked her to be in a photograph with him and his friend. “He said, ‘We’re fans of your work in America.’ Then he giggled.”

Leone is bracing herself for a busy fall and winter. She will soon begin shooting her fourth feature, Tina and Lolo, which she describes as “a cross between Thelma and Louise and Kill Bill.” “We were warned it would be risky,” Weber says. “It is risky,” Leone confirms, adding that women-centric films don’t sell. In November, preproduction starts on It’s Always Sunny in Mumbai, a documentary about her that is slated for HBO. At the moment, though, she is heading to a wrap party thrown by the chief producer of Jackpot. A large cake is covered with sparklers, which people pluck from the frosting and wave around. Leone lowers her sparkler to her fly and holds it there, so that sparks shoot out from her crotch. The director smiles and shakes his head. “Only you can do that,” he says.

Article Appeared @http://www.wmagazine.com/culture/2013/11/sunny-leone-bollywood-actress/

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