Q&A with Sarnia-born Bollywood star Sunny Leone

[Photo: Movie Talkies]

Before 34-year-old Sunny Leone became India’s most googled person, the Bollywood star had humble beginnings in the bordertown of Sarnia, Ont. Leone vividly remembers playing sports and buying penny candies from the corner store, but in her teens, she found herself in the United States.

It was there that she later made a splash in 2001 in the adult entertainment industry and became one of its most popular stars. According to IAFD, the IMDB of adult films, she has appeared in 59 adult films, with the last being released in 2013.

Her big break in Bollywood, however, came when in 2011 when she appeared on Bigg Boss, the Indian version of the hit TV series Big Brother. The appearance helped her land roles in other TV shows and movies such as Jism 2, Splitsvilla and Mastizaade, and she’s now one of India’s biggest celebrities.

Recently, Leone has also launched her own perfume line Lust by Sunny Leone, the Sunny Leone Teen Patti Poker mobile app and started a production house called Suncity Media and Entertainment in India. She has been pleasantly surprised by the country accepting her as a mainstream TV and movie star and says she would be open to appearing in the American mainstream media as well if an opportunity arises.

Leone spoke with Yahoo Canada News from India to reflect on her childhood in Sarnia and her career so far.

What would you say is your favourite memory from growing up in Sarnia?

The winter time: skating, figure skating, building forts, playing street hockey, playing sports….I had a great circle of friends growing up. I look back at the photos now, and I look like a total dork. But it was nice. It was just a different life. When you look back at your childhood, you always think that, oh, this seems so easy, and I think that’s how childhood should be.

Have you ever been back to Sarnia since you left?

I was there last January to shoot a documentary that I’m in the middle of making about my life in Sarnia to Fort Huron then to Orange Country and India. I was back there in January and it was fun. We went to the lake. We went to a couple of my friends’ house, and knocked on the door like I was 10 years old again, 12 years old again and said, “Hi, is Natalie home?” The mother was shocked to see me there, and obviously she doesn’t live at home any more. She has her own family. And I have different school friends who have all moved on with their lives.

What were those moves [to Fort Huron and Orange County] like for you?

They were extremely difficult. When you’re 13 years old, 14 years old away from your friends and all the people you grew up with, it’s never easy. It was a very difficult thing for me emotionally to try and figure out how it was that I was going to make new friends, and what were the people going to be like there and obviously going through puberty at the age was not fun and moving all at the same time. But you know, with change and with time, everything smoothed out and you find your place. Although, I’m not sure I really did find my place.

Was it around that time when you were in America that you knew that you wanted to be a Bollywood star?

I never really thought about being a Bollywood star or ever pursued it until the opportunity to be on a show called Bigg Boss, which is Big Brother in India. When that came to me, even still then, I thought I was going to go on the show for a few weeks and then come back to Los Angeles, where I was living, so it wasn’t something that I thought was ever possible, something that was actually going to happen. So it just all fell in place.

Were you nervous getting your start in the adult entertainment industry?

It wasn’t something that I had planned because like everything in life, it presented itself to me, and it wasn’t that I jumped right into shooting. I started off shooting music videos, and then it was one of these Skinemax-type movies, and then from there it was a photoshoot. But at that moment, when I saw it, it was something that was really beautiful, and it was sexy.

My first shoot was for this movie, and in the movie they had a couple of scenes where they had like Playboy-style nudity in it. And yeah, of course, who’s not nervous on their first day of a shoot when you know the content that you’re about to shoot, so of course it was something that was a bit nerve wracking, and once you start it kind of all fell in place. It’s all a learning process.

Were you also a bit nervous about making that transition from adult films to mainstream Bollywood films?

I was more nervous about wanting to prove myself and wanting do a good job because this is a language that even though my parents spoke Punjabi in the house and we watched Bollywood movies, it wasn’t something that we always practised in the house. I had to really [learn] how to speak properly and not words here and there, and learning lines and making sure that I did a good job. I was more nervous about that than anything else.

What would you say is your favourite thing about Bollywood and being a Bollywood actress?

Well, coming from the industry that I was [in], everything was exciting, and everything was like a dream come true. The opportunity to shoot mainstream movies. When you work in adult, there’s not a lot of ways to shoot in the mainstream world. It’s just the way that it is. And for me, someone who’s willing to take a chance and put me in a movie or put me in a show, I wanted to grab it with both hands and try my hardest to do a good job.

How do you deal with the criticism directed at you for having a past in the adult entertainment industry?

I have to obviously put up blockers, naturally. There’s going to be people who say bad things and there’s going to be people who write bad things all over the world. You see people at different media outlets and publications that go on full attack, maybe not so much in the U.S. and Canada because if you’re defaming someone, you get in trouble. Here, on the other hand, you don’t get in trouble.

You’re the most googled person in India. When did you get that news and what was it like hearing that?

It has actually been four years in a row. It was surprising the first time, surprising the second and the third and the last time as well. It’s not something that I expect or something that I was thinking, “Oh, OK, I wonder if I’ll get it. I just don’t think it would happen again, and it did, multiple times. It’s really nice because my fans support me so much. They’re a huge part of my success and who I am and who I’ve become. They’ve been my fans for a very long time and I’m very proud of that hard work or everything we’ve done throughout the years that’s kind of an indication of where we stand.

How has your faith helped you to stay grounded, and how did it play a role in your life when you were in the adult entertainment industry?

I grew up going to temple on Sunday and being very involved in the religion I grew up with, which was Sikhism. But after a certain time, I’d say 17-18 I learned that I was probably more spiritual than religious, and I feel like as long as I’m not physically hurting someone, I’m not stealing from them, I’m not lying or cheating, then, trying to be the best person I can when I meet people, that’s where I stand with my spirituality and treating people nice. That’s just what I believe in, but I don’t practise any religion.

This interview has been edited and condensed.