After spicing up Season 7, Sunny Leone is back to co-hosting Season 8 of MTV reality show Splitsvilla. A t2 chat.

How will the Sunny Leone of Splitsvilla 8 be different from the one in Season 7?

The difference between how you will see me in this season in comparison to how I was in the previous season is that before I started hosting Splitsvilla, I would watch the show but I didn’t quite understand it. Once I got on the show and became a part of it, I am actually understanding the youth of this country… how they feel about love, about sex, about marriage…. I hosted the show with Nikhil (Chinapa) who has been a Splitsvilla veteran… he has hosted all the seasons so far and to keep pace with him, I had to learn everything very, very quickly. The format of the show… I had to learn it there and then. I just learnt everything on the show.

This season is all about what women want… what women love. The show will have situations where the guys are thrown into the deep-end and they have to figure out what their women want. And that’s where I step in and coach them through the situation… how they handle it what the show is about (smiles). My job is to help them in making better decisions, making wiser decisions. These are all young guys… all hot-headed with a lot of uncontrolled testosterone (laughs), so it’s a difficult task to rein them in. 

And you being on the show isn’t going to help control their testosterone levels, right?!

(Laughs out loud) Come on! But ya, who doesn’t like attention? And my function on the show is also to be hot and desirable. But let me tell you that the guys on this show are pretty sweet. No hanky-panky behaviour (smiles). They are just a bunch of young guys and girls who have come to the show to have some fun and hopefully, some of them will also find love. 

But we are sure you know that most men sign up for Splitsvilla because of you…  

(Laughs) Is that true? I don’t know! If they are, then I am flattered. As I said, I like attention and it’s fun to interact with these guys. I just love being on Splitsvilla… I feel it’s a notch above other reality shows because it shows the youth of this country just as they are… no pretensions, no fakeness…. And honestly, my primary reason for being on Splitsvilla is that I love the format of the show. Plus, I grew up watching MTV and I always wanted to be a part of it. Reality television is huge in the US and I know it’s huge here too. In fact, I was so hoping that I would be called by them for Season 8 that I actually blocked these dates for Splitsvilla on my calendar long before MTV even called me! (Laughs)

Any learnings from Season 7 that you are hoping to apply in Season 8?

The big problem last season was that I got very attached to the show and extremely emotionally involved with the contestants. I have come into this season vowing I will not get so emotionally attached, but you just can’t help it. I can’t control myself when I see reality unfolding in front of my eyes. It’s definitely not the funnest thing to cry and get upset on television (laughs), but I am a kind of person who gets very attached to the people I like… and I love these guys and girls on the show. They are almost like family. 

One definite change from the previous season is that you have a new co-host in Rannvijay… 

Oh yes! Rannvijay is a great guy and we got along well right from the beginning. I had a tough time keeping pace with Nikhil and as most people know, Rannvijay has an unending supply of energy! (Laughs) It’s good, though, and I enjoy it because I feed off that energy and it helps me to bring out my A-game. 

Is there anything from your own relationships that you feel you can apply while hosting this show?

Oh, of course! This show is about relationships and love and about the mistakes you make while being in them. We all have made mistakes in our relationships and continue to do so. So, when I give these boys and girls advice, more often than not, I find myself drawing from my own experiences… or that from friends, family or people I know. On the show, you will always find me saying: ‘This is what happened to me’ or ‘This is what my friend went through’. These people on the show don’ t have much experience when it comes to meeting and dating people, so the responsibility on my shoulders to give them good advice is all the more. At this age, it’s hormones that talk mostly! (Laughs)

Have you always been a firm believer in love or has it happened only after you met your husband Daniel?

I have always been a lover… never a fighter! (Laughs) I love romance… I love the idea of men treating their women, their girlfriends and wives, in a chivalrous way. I am a romantic at heart and I have always believed that men are like the kind you see in romantic films and read about in books about love. That’s how Daniel won me over… he just took me on this romantic fairy tale… he sent me flowers till the time I agreed to go on a date with him (smiles).

This season is about what women want. What does Sunny Leone want?

(Laughs) Ooooo so many things! Good films, good roles…. But honestly, if you just ask me about my personal life, I can say that I am very happy. Daniel is the best husband in the world… I don’t want anything more!

Talking of films, your two releases this year — Ek Paheli Leela and Kuch Kuch Locha Hai — haven’t done well at the box office. How much of a setback has that been?

It hurts for sure, but it’s always better to put a failure down as a learning experience. It definitely doesn’t make me feel good… sometimes, it’s a huge blow… but it just makes me want to push harder and do more. There are so many different things I am working on right now and god willing, they will turn out to be very huge. I am looking at the larger picture, you know… I am looking at expanding my resume in every way possible. 

All your films are sold on the strength of your name. That’s huge pressure, isn’t it?

Oh whew… ask me all about it! (Laughs) It’s so much pressure and I feel it all the time. When my films don’t work, I go through a few phases… first I am in denial, then I get upset… I start second-guessing everything that I am doing. I keep asking myself: ‘Do I stop everything and wait for the perfect film, the perfect director, the perfect script, the perfect production house…?’ But then I bounce back and I tell myself: ‘I am going to work every single day… that’s my mission in life’. 

You are now an integral part of Bollywood, but how much of a setback is it when a Rakhi Sawant abuses you in public and tells you to ‘get out’ or Celina Jaitley alleges that you damaged her house when you rented it…

Honestly, I don’t have the time or energy for negative people like them. The way they have spoken is extremely unprofessional and in bad taste. I am here solely to do good work with my head held high and these are just aberrations that I will have to deal with sometimes. I don’t really care, you know. 

Do you watch Splitsvilla just for Sunny Leone? Tell t2@abp.in