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She’s just had a hit in Ragini MMS 2 and her music video for Girik Aman’s Saree waali girl is a rage on YouTube. This Friday, Sunny Leone makes her TV debut as host on Splitsvilla, the MTV reality show on relationships. A t2 chat.
Sunny Leone and Splitsvilla seems like a natural brand fit. How did the show happen?
I was doing promotions for Ragini MMS 2 and one of the things I did as part of it was hosting a show on MTV called Haunted Weekends. It was a great experience for me as well as for them because they got a good response for the show. They were planning Splitsvilla and they approached me to be in it. I had this period of time free between my films and I was like: ‘Why not stay connected to my youth fans all over the country through a new medium?’ Also, this is something so different… it’s not a regular run-of-the-mill TV show. If I ever opted to do TV, I would have wanted it to be a show like Splitsvilla… it’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s entertaining and it’s very me.
And are you going to limit yourself to being just a co-host on the show?
(Laughs) I hope not! I am co-hosting with Nikhil (Chinapa), but Splitsvilla always has more for the host to do than just the regular stuff. We have to constantly be on our toes, thinking up different tasks for the contestants, playing Cupid sometimes, monitoring their every move and, in general, keeping it fun and fresh for the audience as well as for the contestants. I think I have a lot to do on the show than just stand around and look pretty (laughs). I can guarantee a lot of drama, a lot of heartaches and a lot of surprises this season.
And since it’s you, quite a bit of sexiness too?
(Laughs out loud) Yeah, yeah! That’s what Splitsvilla is about, right? The show has always been known for its oomph factor. But for what I do on Splitsvilla, you will have to wait and watch.
Relationships and break-ups form the core of Splitsvilla. Does your time on the show remind you of your own share of heartbreak and heartache?
(Laughs) For sure. Who doesn’t go through heartbreak and heartache? All of us do. There are 20 girls here and about seven guys, so there’s bound to be a lot of drama. Very often, when we shoot and things go a little out of hand, I find myself unable to hold back my tears when a girl likes a guy and he probably tells her he doesn’t and vice versa. We all have gone through that, haven’t we?
Is television tougher than films?
I have never hosted a reality show before this and the first couple of days, I was quite nervous. But I think what comes very naturally to me is just to be myself. Also, Nikhil is a great help. This is his seventh season as host on Splitsvilla and I have learnt so much by just observing him on the show. In films, it’s a very controlled atmosphere where you do a shot, you go and look at it in the monitor, you come back and you give your next shot. Reality TV is quite the opposite… you have to be spontaneous, you have to think on your feet and you have to be a good listener. Most of what happens on Splitsvilla is very in the moment and I have to be constantly prepared for that.
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The success of Ragini MMS 2 shows that you are among that rare breed of actresses who can actually give a film an opening and sustain it right through. That must make you feel very special…
It does, it does. It’s a wonderful feeling because I am just a couple of films old… I still don’t know how much of this industry works. But I have been lucky enough to work with some wonderful people who have given me films and roles that allow me to play on my strengths. Ragini MMS 2 was a very special film for me because it gave me immense scope to show that I can also act besides all that skin show. I have had a lot of fans come up to me and tell me how much they liked me as an actor in the film. I feel I have grown as an actor immensely from my first film (Jism 2), that released just two years ago, to Ragini MMS 2. And now with Splitsvilla, I have learnt to relax a lot more in front of the camera. The last two years have been a huge learning curve for me. My fans have been very welcoming, more than I ever expected. Bollywood, I think, will still take some time to welcome me fully (smiles).
Baby doll to Chaar botal vodka… Sunny Leone is also a nightclub favourite now…
(Laughs) Yes, that feels very, very good. Wherever I go, people just want to see me dance to Baby doll or Chaar botal vodka. Those two songs have been so huge… it’s kind of surprised me. I always knew that Baby doll had that infectious kind of rhythm and Chaar botal… obviously had Yo Yo Honey Singh to ensure it would be a hit… but the response has been phenomenal.
Ragini MMS 2 started the ‘horrex’ (horror+sex) genre and now you have sex comedies like Tina and Lolo and Mastizaade coming up. Will we ever see Sunny Leone do serious films?
It depends on whether filmmakers see me in those kind of roles. My job is to do what I know best… I am an entertainer and that’s what I will keep doing. Till now, I have had fun doing these films because contrary to what people think, it’s actually a lot of hard work. If I get typecast, I get typecast. Main kya karoon? (Laughs out loud) But at least, I am getting typecast into something that I like doing and people like watching me doing. So it’s actually a win-win situation (smiles).
You are the body for Manforce Condoms. What do you think of Ranveer Singh’s ad for Durex?
I think it’s a lot of fun! The ad is really, really wacky and I don’t think anyone apart from Ranveer could have pulled it off. Kudos to him to have taken a different path to endorse a product that many mainstream stars wouldn’t. And he does look hot in it!
DID YOU KNOW?
Sunny was studying to be a paediatric nurse before Jay Allan, a photographer with porn magazine Penthouse, approached her for a photoshoot. Porn films happened soon after.
When she first started doing porn, Sunny insisted that she would ‘perform’ only with women. She has gone on record to state that she’s bisexual, though she’s married to fellow porn star Daniel Weber.
She once shaved off her pubic hair in public in support of the ‘Anti Bush Campaign’.
Consistently named one of the top 12 porn stars in the world, Sunny has a number of adult gadgets named after her, notably the Sunny Leone Exciter Vibrator.
When she was signed on for Jism 2, Sunny requested for the medical certificates of her co-stars Randeep Hooda and Arunoday Singh thinking that the sex scenes would be filmed for real!
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