It's Not Always Sunny In Leone Land

A new documentary on the porn star-turned-Bollywood actor tracks the transformation of Karenjit Kaur Vohra to Sunny Leone.

- Suhani Singh

I don’t give a s*** if you don’t like me,” says Sunny Leone at one point in Mostly Sunny, photographer turned filmmaker Dilip Mehta’s documentary about her journey from the quiet, small town of Sarnia in Canada to big city Mumbai. It is one of the many provocative statements that the porn star turned Bollywood actor makes in the 94-minute film, in which Karenjit Kaur Vohra tells it as it is. It’s a film she doesn’t want Indians to see. At its India premiere in the Mumbai Film Festival, there are some clues why Leone and Daniel Weber, her husband, manager and confidant, are upset. There are brief clips from her porn films as well as footage from a brazen interview she gave to The Howard Stern Show, declaring that she knew she was a bisexual since she was 13. Whatever be Leone and Weber’s sentiments, Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights for Mostly Sunny and plans to release it in early 2017.

Sunny Leone’s present rests on her past and it is that very past that she now wants to be represented in ways that she is comfortable with. But Mehta, who sought complete creative control and total access, won’t budge. He can be as unapologetically frank as Leone. “The only reason for her success, and I’m not being unkind about it, is her past as a major porn star,” he says. “She is not particularly a good actor as yet, she is not particularly a good dancer though she has improved significantly; she is good looking, but then this is Bollywood which has attractive women a dime a dozen.” That Leone is a rank outsider who, against all odds, has found a foothold in the Hindi film business drew Mehta to her story.