‘Everyone has a past’

Sunny Leone is not an unfamiliar name by any stretch of imagination. Even before she actually landed her first Bollywood role, this lady had created quite a stir on national television. And that too without doing what she is known best for. 

Adult film actor Leone, who has her own studio, Sunlust Pictures with her husband Daniel Weber as partner, was already on ample male minds. She made her place in the Indian television scene with Bigg Boss Season 5. She entered as a participant, creating instant uproar as allegations against the channel (Colors) started pouring in. The self-righteous Indian audience, who surely streamed her clips in their free time, accused the network of promoting pornography. 

But that did not deter Leone or the channel. Perhaps they wanted this exact reaction - any publicity is good publicity after all! And let us refresh your memories as we remind you of that fateful day that Mahesh Bhatt walked into the house and offered Leone a role in his movie Jism 2. Then clearly there was no looking back. 

Leone had made her place in the house, as she revealed her real identity to the inmates, not one person reacted adversely (though we were a tad bit amused at the fact that no man in the house recognised her) - India had accepted her, whether the self-serious section of public liked it or not. 

Jism 2 has Leone sexing things up with Randeep Hooda and Arunoday Singh. The film did not do wonders at the box office, but everyone was talking about her, rightfully so. Plum projects fell into her lap - an item song in Sanjay Gupta’s Shootout at Wadala - Laila; Kaizad Gustad’s Jackpot which is scheduled for a 13 December release; Ragini MMS 2 (expected release 14 January 2014) and Tina and Lolo (expected to release in January 2014 as well). 

Speaking to Millennium Post about Jackpot, Leone says,’ I play the role of Maya, it is a negative character, it is someone who plays both sides of the fence.’ Echoing what director Kaizad Gustad had said to us earlier (read that interview here -

http://bit.ly/1ayFKuh), Leone explains that all the characters in Jackpot have shades of grey for everyone is out there to con the other. 

So how did Leone land the role? ‘I met Kaizad through Sachiin Joshi,’ she says adding that she read the script and loved it and instantly agreed to the movie. ‘It is very brilliantly written by Kaizad,’ she adds. The movie had to be shot before the monsoons in Goa ended for the movie is set on a house boat and a casino ship in Goa. Gustad wanted to shoot it during the peak season so as to capture the best sights. And that meant being on the sets at 7 in the morning with make-up and hair done says Leone, which meant waking up at 4 am!

Leone says that working with Gustad was one of the best things ever since he is so calm and composed, ‘You will never see his feathers ruffled,’ she says adding that no matter what the situation, Gustad was always relaxed and chilled out. Though she adds that there were times that she gave him quite the heart attack. 

‘I was the only girl on the set and people were extra careful about me. I had to make sure I did not hurt myself by accident,’ she says laughing about one incident when she fell over a piece on the set while shooting with Naseeruddin Shah. ‘The whole place was full of broken glass as it was a very dramatic scene and I managed to fall over, fortunately I did not hurt myself but Kaizad Sir got quite a heart attack! He told me that he would have a heart attack for sure because of the number of times she would trip or almost fall,’ says Leone. 

We asked Leone if she had considered movies that Gustad has made in his career (Boom and Bombay Boys) before she agreed to take on Jackpot. ‘Not at all!’ says the actor instantly. ‘I liked Kaizad Sir, he is warm, funny, humorous and such a calm and collected individual. I agreed to the movie more for who he was than what he has done in his career.’ ‘Everyone has a past,’ says Leone adding, ‘I am the last person to judge a person based on his past.’ 

Speaking about her cast and crew, Leone says that she is in awe of Naseeruddin Shah and he tops her list of co-stars because she has not worked with anyone so talented and so respected in the industry. And the actor picks Karishma Tanna (her co-star in

Tina and Lolo) as someone from the industry she can actually be friends with, ‘She is a wonderful person,’ says Leone. 

So what next? Leone admits that she has no master plan for Bollywood, all that she really wants to do is to work in films that are complete opposites of each other. ‘Am in a weird type-casting situation anyway,’ laughs the actor, ‘Each role I do should be completely different from the last one I did, that’s my plan. But I really want to do a full on comedy film,’ says Leone and believes that it would be great fun. ‘Very often we are not aware of our expressions in situations and I think I would love to do a film where I get to work on that!’  

Jackpot also stars Sachiin Joshi and Naseeruddin Shah and is all set to hit screens on 13 December. Jackpot marks Gustad’s return to B’wood after almost a decade. Shot over a span of six months, Jackpot is expected to follow the same dark humour Gustad is known for. And then it has the gorgeous Leone. Do you need any more reasons to watch this one!?