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29 March 2024

Rape not something to joke about: Sunny Leone

Published
By Bindu Suresh Rai

There are some who may find it difficult to take advice from a former adult film star, especially when the issue at hand shines a spotlight on basic human morality.

But Sunny Leone refuses to be ignored.

The one-time Penthouse Pet of the Year turned Bollywood diva, Leone is strong in her views over the sensitive issue of rape, even as India’s capital, New Delhi, faces a fresh wave of protests while a five-year-old battles for her very life in a hospital after being brutally gang raped.

“People who rape women have psychological issues and they need help,” said the 31-year-old during her visit to Dubai over the weekend. “Whether it reflects on how they grew up or what their influences were, how they think. There is something seriously wrong with rapists.”

Leone’s words are hard hitting as Delhi struggles with the harsh tag of being India’s rape capital post the brutal rape of a young woman last December in a moving bus. The woman succumbed to her injuries a few short weeks post the attack, but lit a spark to a movement that has seen people take to the streets in protests, even as politicians point fingers at industries such as Bollywood that has made it its business to objectify women in scantily-clad clothes and innuendo-filled item songs.

The stunning Leone is no exception to the rule, who will jet into Dubai once again on April 25 as part of the film promotions for ‘Shootout at Wadala’, where she fits the item song stereotype in the hip-shaking ‘Laila’.

But Leone begs to differ.

“I think that is an excuse that politicians or anyone else uses,” she said, when quizzed about this controversial debate. “Those who rape women have psychological issues and they need help, medical help to make their mind stable. They have imbalance in their mind.

“It’s an act that can’t be blamed on anybody but that person itself. People need to address this reality.”

It is this very stance that saw her indulge in a war of words via Twitter with fellow actor and Dubai resident, Kamaal R Khan, who threatened to throw Leone behind bars when a controversial tweet appeared from her account, which the actress denied as ever typing, stating that her account had in fact been hacked.

Leone’s tweet read: “Rape is not crime, it is a surprise sex.”

Khan retweeted the comment and lamblasted her online, which forced Leone to file a case against him at the Cyber Cell Crime Branch in Mumbai.

In retaliation Khan posted a comment, saying: “My lawyers are preparing cases to file in Mumbai and Delhi against Sunny Leone. So just wait and I promise to deport her from India very soon. I shall file case against Sunny Leone at Versova police station.”

Quiz Leone about the case and she said: “There has been an FIR filed and now its case between him and the Maharashtra government.

“I needed to take a step because rape is not something you joke about.”

Bigg Boss brouhaha

This is not the first time that Leone has faced the wrath of people in India.

In her own words, the actress recalled her stint in the reality TV show ‘Bigg Boss’, which brought this adult film star into Indian homes and resulted in her first Bollywood film, ‘Jism 2’.

“The only time I was scared in life was when the first time as Sunny Leone I was being dropped off at the Bigg Boss house,” she recalled. “Even before I was dropped off, the channel was getting death threats as people were not happy. There were protests.

“I guess it was this fear that some crazy fanatic may want to hurt me or my family.”

Death threats? Were things really that intense?

She laughed, saying: “It was scary and reading articles or having the channel call to say, okay you are not coming this week, but next week made it all the more real.

“I think if you live your life scared or think about all the things that could happen, then you are not moving at all. I needed to take that step to India and working there is the best thing that could have happened to my career.”

Of course, husband Daniel Weber may have gone a way to reassure her.

“I think I was reassuring him that, don’t worry, everything is going to be okay,” came the laughing response. “It was more difficult more for the people on the outside than me being in the house. Your body and mind adapts to being cut off. Outside you are perpetually looking at phones, seeing the TV, reading the news and falling into the fear trap because of it.”

In retrospect, does Leone regret anything about moving to India?

“No, I hadn’t been scared to move to India; it became a natural process,” she confessed. “If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said, no, I would just travel back and forth from Los Angeles. And now I don’t see myself as living anywhere else.”

But who can forget Leone and her notoriety that continues in Los Angeles in the form of SunLust Productions.

Ask the actress and she doesn’t shy away from her roots.

“I am very hands on in my own Bollywood world, while Daniel handles the company,” she explains. “He makes it possible for me to be me and handle my films and endorsements. This is where my heart is right now.

“Of course, I can’t let go of that company that we started together. And it’s a well oiled machine so it’s not that we have much to do. We have people working for us.”

And does her husband have no issues with her racy movies or films, with men finding excuses to throw themselves at her?

“Well, Daniel’s really good looking too. I think we have the perfect work-home life: He’s my best friend,” she says. “I found an angel in him. It’s that easy. We work and live together. I don’t get sick of being around him at all. Usually that’s something you only get with a dog.

“He’s very supportive and understands this is a job and our personal life is our personal life.

“If I kiss a boy or make movies, it doesn’t mean anything.”

But ask her if she ever sees herself return to her former life and she is quick to negate the possibility.

“Right now my heart is in Bollywood and this is where I intend to stay,” she says firmly.

Critics, take that.