[Y.B.K] NL Interviews - Dilip Mehta on his Sunny Leone documentary[ PART 2 ]

Sunny Leone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sunny Leone
Sunny Leone, december 2015, Mastizaade.jpg
Leone at the promotional event for Mastizaade in December 2015
Born Karenjit Kaur Vohra
May 13, 1981 (age 35)[1]
Sarnia, Ontario, Canada[2]
Nationality Canadian American
Ethnicity Punjabi[3]
Occupation Film Actress, former Porn star
Height 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)[1][2]
Weight 110 lb (50 kg; 7.9 st)[1][2]
Religion Sikhism
Spouse(s) Daniel Weber (2011–present)[4]
No. of adult films 56 as actress,
59 as director[5]

Karenjit Kaur Vohra[6] (born May 13, 1981),[1] better known by her stage name 'Sunny Leone' (pronounced /ˈsəniːliːˈoʊnˈiː/), is a Canadian Bollywood actress and model,[7] and former pornstar.[8] [9] She has also used the stage name Karen Malhotra.[10][11] She was named Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2003, was a contract performer for Vivid Entertainment, and was named by Maxim as one of the 12 top porn stars in 2010.

She has played roles in independent mainstream events, films and television shows. Her first mainstream appearance was in 2005, when she worked as a red carpet reporter for the MTV Video Music Awards on MTV India. In 2011, she participated in the Indian reality television series Big Boss. She hosts the Indian reality show Splitsvilla.

In 2012 she made her Bollywood debut in Pooja Bhatt's erotic thriller Jism 2 (2012) and shifted her focus to mainstream acting which was followed up with Jackpot (2013), Ragini MMS 2 (2014) and Ek Paheli Leela (2015).

Apart from her acting career she has been part of activism campaigns including the Rock 'n' Roll Los Angeles Half-Marathon to raise money for the American Cancer Society and has also posed for a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) ad campaign with a rescued dog, encouraging pet owners to have their cats and dogs spayed and neutered.

Since 2011, Sunny has been married to fellow porn star Daniel Weber.[12]

Contents

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Mainstream appearances
3.1 Bigg Boss
3.2 Indian cinema
3.3 Upcoming projects
4 Writer
5 Personal life
6 Filmography
6.1 Bollywood films
6.2 Hollywood films
6.3 Pornographic films
7 Television
7.1 Other media appearances
8 Awards
9 Bibliography
10 See also
11 References
12 External links

Early life

Sunny Leone was born in Sarnia, Ontario to Sikh Punjabi parents.[3] Her father was born in Tibet and raised in Delhi, while her mother (who died in 2008)[13] was from Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh.[3] As a young girl, she was very athletic and played street hockey with the boys.[2]

Although the family was Sikh,[3] her parents enrolled her in Catholic school[3][14] as it was felt to be unsafe for her to go to public school.[15] She lost her virginity to a basketball player at another school at 16,[14] and discovered her bisexuality at age 18.[16] When she was 13, her family moved to Fort Gratiot, Michigan, then to Lake Forest, California a year later,[14][17] fulfilling her grandparents' dream that the family be together in one place.[3]
Career

Before working in the porn industry, she worked at a German bakery,[18] a Jiffy Lube,[14] and later a tax and retirement firm.[19]
A black-haired woman wearing a yellow top and jeans sitting behind a table looking up at the camera.
Leone at the 2002 Adult Entertainment Expo, one of her earliest promotional appearances

While studying to be a pediatric nurse in Orange County, a classmate who was an exotic dancer introduced Leone to John Stevens, an agent who in turn introduced her to Jay Allen, a photographer for Penthouse magazine.[citation needed] When picking a name for her adult career, she has said that Sunny is her real name and Leone was picked by Bob Guccione, former owner of Penthouse magazine.[20] She posed for Penthouse magazine, and was named Penthouse Pet of the Month for the March 2001 issue, followed by a feature in the Holiday 2001 edition of Hustler magazine as a Hustler Honey. She has also appeared in other magazines including Cheri,[21] Mystique Magazine,[22] High Society, Swank, AVN Online, Leg World, Club International and Lowrider,[23][24] while her online credits include ModFX Models,[25] Suze Randall,[26] Ken Marcus[27] and Mac & Bumble.[28] Her pictorial credits also include working with stars like Adriana Sage, Jenna Jameson, Jelena Jensen and Aria Giovanni.

In 2003, she was named "Penthouse Pet of the Year" and starred in the video Penthouse Pets in Paradise alongside Tera Patrick and Kyla Cole. In 2005 Adam & Eve appointed her as their West Coast Internet Sales Representative.[29]
Sunny Leone at AVN Awards 2006

That same year, Leone signed a three-year contract with Vivid Entertainment with which she transitioned into the world of hardcore pornography, stating that she would only do lesbian scenes.[2] Her first movie released was titled Sunny[30] and was released in December 2005. Her next movie, Virtual Vivid Girl Sunny Leone, was the first interactive title for Leone, who was the first Vivid Girl to make such a movie.[31] Taking only four days to film,[18] the movie won her her first AVN Award (Best Interactive DVD). She followed this with Sunny Loves Cher, which featured her first on-screen squirting, and The Female Gardner co-starring Mikayla Mendez and Daisy Marie.

Leone's last two movies under her contract with Vivid were It's Sunny in Brazil, which was filmed in Brazil,[32] and The Sunny Experiment also starring Monique Alexander and Brea Lynn.[33] The movies were released in October and December 2007 respectively.

In May 2007, upon re-signing her contract with Vivid for another six films, Leone agreed to perform for the first time with men on camera, but exclusively with her fiancé, Matt Erikson.[34] That summer she also received breast augmentation,[35] and shot her first movie under the new contract titled Sunny Loves Matt. The movie led to her being nominated for three (out of six) AVN awards in 2009 in addition to being a choice for Female Performer of the Year.[36] She followed up her first boy-girl title with The Other Side of Sunny in October 2008, which would be the last time she would perform with Erikson.

In January 2008, Leone revealed that she was no longer exclusive to Erikson, and had done scenes with other actors, most notably Tommy Gunn, Charles Dera, James Deen[37] and Voodoo.[38] In 2009, Vivid released her only movie performing with other male actors titled "Sunny B/G Adventure".[39] Her final release under contract with Vivid – "Undress Me", once again made her exclusive to performing with just one male actor, Daniel Webber.[40]

In August 2009, she announced the launch of her own studio, Sunlust Pictures, with Daniel Weber as her partner.[41] With her new venture Leone announced her plans to write, direct and create her own brand of adult movies with Vivid Entertainment as her distributor.[37] Her first independent production, The Dark Side of the Sun, was released in March 2009, and was debuted at the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas.[42] In June 2009, she held a casting call in Las Vegas for her second independent production titled Sunny Slumber Party[43] (released September 2009).She followed up with three other self produced features Gia Portrait of a Porn Star (2010) which was nominated for multiple AVN awards,[44] Roleplay (2011) and Goddess (2012) which featured her first anal sex scene.[45]
Sunny Leone at Exxxotica 2009 Miami

No longer exclusive to Vivid, Leone has started working with other studios and performers since 2009. She has managed to leverage her online popularity by striking deals with firms like PPPcard,[46] AdultPokerParty.com,[47] Brickhouse,[48] Flirt4Free,[49] Totemcash[50] and Imlive[51] to sell and distribute her content over the internet and other media. She won the "Web Babe of the Year" at the 2008 Xbiz Awards.[52] Her websites and business interests are run under her banner company Leone L.L.C. She indicated in an April 2012 interview that 80 per cent of the traffic on her website, and 60 per cent of her revenue comes from India.[53]

In addition to her film career, Leone has been part of the Vivid Comedy Tour,[54] and has modelled for the Vivid Footwear collection.[55] Leone has also participated in events like the Vivid/ClubJenna Lingerie Bowl[56] and Vivid's Hot Rod Night.[57] Doc Johnson launched a pocket pal in 2006 moulded to her vagina,[58] and in 2008 released the Sunny Leone Exciter vibrator.[59] Control MFG currently uses Leone's image along with other Vivid girls to market their line of skateboards. She is paired with Gab Ekoe, one of the Team Control riders.[60] She also indicated that she plans to launch her own line of lingerie and other Sunny-branded products including a diamond jewellery line.[37]

In September 2009, an iPhone application consisting of a collection of non-nude photos, some videos and a porn star-penned blog[61] was approved by Apple for sale in the iTunes store, making it the first officially sanctioned application featuring a porn star.[62] By February 2010, the app had been removed by Apple from the store.[63]

Leone was voted number 13 (up from number 41 in 2007[64]) on Genesis magazine's "Top 100 Porn stars" list,[65] number 34 on Desiclubs.com's Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2004,[66] and one of the "40 under 40" ranking on AVN Online magazine.[67] In 2010, she was named by Maxim as one of the 12 top female stars in porn.[68] She was voted number 82 in the Top 99 Women for 2012 in AskMen.com's list.[69]

In 2013, she announced her retirement from the adult industry stating "I am lucky that the audience is accepting me. I have come my way from there (porn industry). I don't have any plans as of now to go back there."[70]

A police first information report was filed against her in May 2015 after a woman at Mumbai, India, complained that the adult-film-turned Bollywood star was destroying the Indian culture. Thane police at Ramnagar booked her for sections 292, 292A, 294 which could land her into jail, fine or both. Senior police inspector JK Sawant from the cell said, "We are trying to contact the website's operator to get relevant details. We cannot block the website, but will ask the operator to remove objectionable content."[71]
Mainstream appearances

Leone's first mainstream appearance was in 2005, when she was a red carpet reporter for the MTV Awards on MTV India. She has also had a cameo in the film The Girl Next Door, performed in Ja Rule's video Livin' It Up and a video for Kidd Skilly.[72] Other credits include E!'s "Wild On!" and the Sundance Film Festival's 'After Dark'.[73] Leone was a contestant in the second season of the Fox reality show My Bare Lady 2: Open for Business, in which a group of adult actresses were given classes and training on how to pitch investment ideas and competed for success in the business world.[74] In addition to filming her scene for Debbie Does Dallas in 2007, Leone was also part of a Showtime documentary of the same name detailing the production of the movie and the personal lives of its stars.

She indicated that for the right price she would seriously consider a career in Bollywood.[75] She was courted by Indian directors in the past but felt uncomfortable with the roles that she would have played.[20][76] Director Mohit Suri reportedly asked Leone to play the lead role in his film Kalyug, but instead cast Deepal Shaw as he could not afford Leone's $1 million acting fee.[77] She has mentioned that Aamir Khan is her favorite Bollywood actor,[78] and that over 60% of her fans are from South Asia.[79]

In 2008, Leone announced that she would be starring in a mainstream action adventure movie titled Pirates Blood, which was shot in Oman. The shooting was completed in two weeks and was to be released in winter 2008.[80] Leone also landed a role in Middle Men, producer Chris Mallick's indie feature about the birth of the online porn industry set for wide theatrical release in 2009.[81][82] She appeared in the 2010 film The Virginity Hit playing a version of herself, where she is hired to take the virginity of the lead character.[83]

Leone has made appearances at events such as the 2002 SEMA International Auto Salon, the 2002 Extreme Autofest Pomona and the 2006 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.[84] Sunny has also been the hostess at events in clubs like the Mansion in Miami[85] and the Highlands in Hollywood.[86]

In 2005, she was mentioned in Forbes magazine for a story on Vivid Entertainment.[87] Leone has also been featured in mainstream publications like FHM, Front and Jane magazine.[88] In 2007, along with the other Vivid Girls, she was seen in a 48' high holiday Billboard in Times Square at W. 48th Street and Seventh Avenue.[89] Leone is also one of the Penthouse Pets who appears in the PlayStation Portable game Pocket Pool. She was also featured in a coffee table book titled Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry by Michael Grecco.[90]
Sunny at the PETA - Adopt a stray dog campaign.

In 2004, she was part of No More Bush Girls, in which she and several other popular adult actresses shaved off their pubic hair in protest of the George W. Bush presidency.[91] In May 2008, she shot a promotional video for Declare Yourself, a nonprofit, nonpartisan voter registration campaign targeting 18- to 29-year-olds.[92] She indicated that Barack Obama would be her choice in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, primarily because she felt he was more business friendly to the adult industry than his opponent John McCain.[93] She also released a public service announcement on behalf of the ASACP, reminding adult webmasters to protect their sites from children by having an RTA label on it.[94]

Leone has a strong interest in health and fitness, and has been featured in several mainstream fitness publications. Leone has modelled fitness clothing for the sports brand Fantasy Fitness[95] and shared that she keeps her body in shape by working out as much as she can despite her busy schedule and as quoted in Men's Fitness magazine, "I try to eat very healthy – lots of vegetables, drinking my milk every day."[96]

In 2013, Leone posed for a PETA ad campaign, encouraging dog and cat owners to have their pets spayed and neutered. In an interview for PETA India, Leone said, "I believe that every single dog should be spayed and neutered. You don't want to continue the cycle of homeless dogs or cats. And spaying and neutering also keeps them healthy[97]
Bigg Boss
Leone with show host Sanjay Dutt after her eviction from the Bigg Boss house

In 2011, she participated in the Indian reality series Bigg Boss, entering the house on day 49.[98][99] However she refused to divulge her porn star status, and replied to fellow house-mate Pooja Bedi that she was a model and a TV star in America for the last ten years or so.[100] It was reported that she caused a stir in the larger populace[101] with her Twitter feed gaining 8,000 new followers in just 2 days[102] and Google saying searches for her experienced a "breakout".[103] There were also complaints lodged with the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting alleging that the Colors TV channel was promoting pornography by having Leone appear on the show; among those who filed are the Indian Artistes and Actors Forum[104] and Anurag Thakur, member of Lok Sabha and head of the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing.[105]
Indian cinema
Leone on the set of Jism 2 in 2012

During her stay in the Bigg Boss house, Sunny was approached by Bollywood film-maker Mahesh Bhatt who entered the house briefly to offer her the lead role in Jism 2 (the sequel to the 2003 film Jism). She accepted it, which resulted in Pooja Bhatt's production house, Fish Eye Network and Leone's agent discussing the movie further.[106] Leone's entered Bollywood in 2012 with the film Jism 2 to weak critical reception but was commercially successful.[107] Sunny Leone signed her second Bollywood film, "Ragini MMS 2". Ragini MMS, sequel to Ekta Kapoor's crossover horror movie Ragini MMS.[108] Sunny Leone featured in an item number in the Sanjay Gupta and Ekta Kapoor's 2013 film Shootout at Wadala.[109][110] She further started filming for Kaizad Gustad's Jackpot in which she plays a femme fatale.[111] Jackpot rele