This image was posted on Instagram by sunnyleonelife.
Toronto:
The career graph of Sunny Leone, one of the unlikeliest of stars Hindi cinema has ever seen, provides the narrative grist to Dilip Mehta's 90-minute documentary Mostly Sunny. But there is much more to the film than just an eventful life story packed with action.
As the film tracks the Canadian-born former adult movie actress's emergence in rarefied Bollywood, Mostly Sunny explores, with humour, insight and empathy, the dynamics of the Mumbai film industry - and Indian society as a whole by extension - in the context of her success.
"I have used Sunny Leone's life and times as a vehicle for probing the new India," says Dilip. "The film seeks to understand why the most Googled personality in India five years in a row is so popular among mainstream Hindi movie fans."
"When the film fell on my lap, I wasn't sure it would be my cup of tea. But as a photojournalist, filmmaker and documentarian, I respond to a different agenda and saw an opportunity in the project," says Dilip.
"I decided to use the Sunny Leone story to do an oblique examination of India," he says. "When I ran the idea past (producer) David (Hamilton), he said it was a brilliant approach."
"Notwithstanding all the dramatic changes that India has seen in recent decades, the country hasn't had a genuine sexual revolution. Sunny Leone is spearheading a revolution in mindsets," says Dilip, whose work as a photojournalist has appeared in Time, Newsweek and National Geographic magazines.
In Mostly Sunny, Dilip captures the actress speaking at length about her childhood, her equations with her orthodox Sikh parents, and the choices she has made in life.
She points to the fact that the Indian community in Sarnia, Ontario (her birthplace) has disowned her but Bollywood has embraced her with open arms.
Acutely aware of what sells, she is enthused enough to declare: "Get used to my body, at least for a while."
To provide a contrast, Dilip zeroes in on three Bollywood extras who see Sunny Leone as a role model even as they themselves struggle on the fringes of a ruthlessly exploitative movie industry. She has everything that a Mumbai film actress can aspire to, they say with not a little envy.
Adman Suhel Seth offers an explanation for the "social acceptance" in India for Sunny Leone. "She is married. She is not an available porn star," he says.
On the other hand, Dilip's film has former police officer Kiran Bedi blaming pornography and the likes of Sunny Leone for sexual violence.
The film cuts to a bemused Sunny. "Stop freaking blaming me. Rapes have been happening forever," she thunders.
At the film's premiere at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the screening went beyond midnight at the downtown Isabel Bader Theatre, but large sections of the audience stayed on for a lively question and answer session that lasted over 30 minutes.
Says Dilip: "I must admit that there was a bit of consternation about how Mostly Sunny would fly here. "But the audience related to the film instantly."
Two facets of Mostly Sunny stand out. One is the character of Sunny Singh Vohra, Sunny Leone's brother whose name she stole when she joined the adult movie industry.
The brother is, in many ways, the anchor of the film, taking the audience back into the conservative expatriate community from where Sunny Leone came and throwing light on the reactions her choices triggered in the family and among neighbours. He speaks his mind without ever being judgmental.
Sunny Leone, on her part, singles him out for praise. My brother has always stood by me, he has been supportive of my choices, she says.
The other is her husband and business manager Daniel Weber. "The two work in tandem to keep the Sunny Leone brand on the boil," says Dilip. "They complement each other - one completes a sentence that the other begins." That aspect of their relationship comes out in bold relief in Mostly Sunny.
"Sunny is a brand. Karen is my wife," Daniel says at one point in the film, asserting the distinction between the public and the private.
While Sunny gave over two years to the project, there were periods of cooling off in the course of the shoot. "As we shot the documentary, the couple must have begun to wonder why they were doing it. Daniel Weber starting becoming a little more precious," recalls Dilip.
Mostly Sunny is neither prurient nor exploitative, but Sunny Leone, mindful of the squeaky clean image that she wants to acquire to extend her Bollywood stint, is now having second thoughts. She stayed away from the film's Toronto premiere.
"That is her loss," says Dilip, who sees the film as a portrait of a tough woman living life on her own terms and not caring a fig about the world.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
As the film tracks the Canadian-born former adult movie actress's emergence in rarefied Bollywood, Mostly Sunny explores, with humour, insight and empathy, the dynamics of the Mumbai film industry - and Indian society as a whole by extension - in the context of her success.
"I have used Sunny Leone's life and times as a vehicle for probing the new India," says Dilip. "The film seeks to understand why the most Googled personality in India five years in a row is so popular among mainstream Hindi movie fans."
"When the film fell on my lap, I wasn't sure it would be my cup of tea. But as a photojournalist, filmmaker and documentarian, I respond to a different agenda and saw an opportunity in the project," says Dilip.
"I decided to use the Sunny Leone story to do an oblique examination of India," he says. "When I ran the idea past (producer) David (Hamilton), he said it was a brilliant approach."
"Notwithstanding all the dramatic changes that India has seen in recent decades, the country hasn't had a genuine sexual revolution. Sunny Leone is spearheading a revolution in mindsets," says Dilip, whose work as a photojournalist has appeared in Time, Newsweek and National Geographic magazines.
In Mostly Sunny, Dilip captures the actress speaking at length about her childhood, her equations with her orthodox Sikh parents, and the choices she has made in life.
She points to the fact that the Indian community in Sarnia, Ontario (her birthplace) has disowned her but Bollywood has embraced her with open arms.
Acutely aware of what sells, she is enthused enough to declare: "Get used to my body, at least for a while."
To provide a contrast, Dilip zeroes in on three Bollywood extras who see Sunny Leone as a role model even as they themselves struggle on the fringes of a ruthlessly exploitative movie industry. She has everything that a Mumbai film actress can aspire to, they say with not a little envy.
Adman Suhel Seth offers an explanation for the "social acceptance" in India for Sunny Leone. "She is married. She is not an available porn star," he says.
On the other hand, Dilip's film has former police officer Kiran Bedi blaming pornography and the likes of Sunny Leone for sexual violence.
The film cuts to a bemused Sunny. "Stop freaking blaming me. Rapes have been happening forever," she thunders.
At the film's premiere at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the screening went beyond midnight at the downtown Isabel Bader Theatre, but large sections of the audience stayed on for a lively question and answer session that lasted over 30 minutes.
Says Dilip: "I must admit that there was a bit of consternation about how Mostly Sunny would fly here. "But the audience related to the film instantly."
Two facets of Mostly Sunny stand out. One is the character of Sunny Singh Vohra, Sunny Leone's brother whose name she stole when she joined the adult movie industry.
The brother is, in many ways, the anchor of the film, taking the audience back into the conservative expatriate community from where Sunny Leone came and throwing light on the reactions her choices triggered in the family and among neighbours. He speaks his mind without ever being judgmental.
Sunny Leone, on her part, singles him out for praise. My brother has always stood by me, he has been supportive of my choices, she says.
The other is her husband and business manager Daniel Weber. "The two work in tandem to keep the Sunny Leone brand on the boil," says Dilip. "They complement each other - one completes a sentence that the other begins." That aspect of their relationship comes out in bold relief in Mostly Sunny.
"Sunny is a brand. Karen is my wife," Daniel says at one point in the film, asserting the distinction between the public and the private.
While Sunny gave over two years to the project, there were periods of cooling off in the course of the shoot. "As we shot the documentary, the couple must have begun to wonder why they were doing it. Daniel Weber starting becoming a little more precious," recalls Dilip.
Mostly Sunny is neither prurient nor exploitative, but Sunny Leone, mindful of the squeaky clean image that she wants to acquire to extend her Bollywood stint, is now having second thoughts. She stayed away from the film's Toronto premiere.
"That is her loss," says Dilip, who sees the film as a portrait of a tough woman living life on her own terms and not caring a fig about the world.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
