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recover their money. Her OTHER films don’t get five stars DOCUMENTARIES [from critics]. I think she’s TO SEE not gotten more than one- and-a-half stars at best. It’s not as if there aren’t prettier, better actresses. It’s not as though Sunny is particularly gifted. I think she has quite a ways to go before she can convincingly act. But, there’s a reason why there are so many film offers outside her The Cinema Travellers: A Cannes prizewinner door — no one likes to lose on the last travelling their investment.” cinemas of the world. Despite the financial successes, her background From above: makes her an easy target. Leone with her. They In the film, Leone says, “I’ve husband Daniel thought she Weber at home never been in a situation in ; was absolutely With her younger where I’m on set, casting or brother; In remarkable and at a first-time meeting, and Sarnia, Canada, courageous. She her hometown; EARLIER THIS YEAR, Sunny censures her with genuine and unapologetic about somebody is trying to hit Ice skating with could have gone on Weber in Sarnia; The Leone, who usually gives disappointment. He her porn career. She isn’t on me and tell me, ‘If you During the shoot to yet another high masterclasses on fingering tailed her for almost two ashamed of anything. This do X,Y,Z, I’ll give you this of 'Pink Lips' in life. All the things years, and was given young woman, well, she’s about not liking the other on her website, gave a Anatomy of Violence: job. That’s not happened to masterclass on grace. unrestricted access by not that young anymore, is Deepa Mehta takes a me, ever.” But, people have film, between you, side of As CNN-IBN journalist Leone and her manager- saying, ‘Yes, that was my fearless approach to approached Weber, also me and the lamp post, I the gang rape of Bhupendra Chaubey husband Daniel Weber. profession. Does that make a former porn think that’s just an excuse, December 2012. Leone berated her with insulting Mehta has seen first-hand me a sinner? Does it make actor. Mehta because she’s in every frame Sunny Leone, who questions, she was calm, what a “consummate me a social outcast? Don’t says, “He says in of the movie. She talks to hasn’t redacted unafraid, unashamed, professional” she is. “We’ve be threatened by me. I’m not the film, ‘People the camera so comfortably. anything in her even polite. Distancing been on many, many film harming anybody. You can ask me all the Now, how can she deny it? It life story, turns himself from this kind of sets and item songs with her. do what you want as long time — “Is she an doesn’t make any sense.” her back on a journalism, Dilip Mehta, who She would be the first one as it doesn’t hurt anybody. escort girl? Is she a Mehta’s film is the case new documentary has shot a no-holds-barred on the set and usually the It’s okay to chart out prostitute?” She’s not study that the Leone spin that’s out to documentary on Leone last one to leave. She never untraditional ways of living. a prostitute.’ They’re machine deserves — how celebrate her. called Mostly Sunny, says, threw a tantrum — and there You don’t always have to do not interested in all that to turn a porn career By Ekta Mohta “We didn’t approach this were many occasions when what your forefathers did.’ just because of her past. into a huge professional film with an agenda. We’re she could have or should It’s almost as though she’s a in a Day: Footage They’re two people who advantage. “There’s not CNN-IBN.” have. Maybe she has to work liberal feminist.” shot by ordinary love each other, and more more in the film than people on a single day Mostly Sunny premiered harder than most others Leone’s non-pornographic important than love, they what’s usually handed out,” assembles a lyrical at the Toronto International to prove she’s normal, that film career includes only portrait of modern trust each other. I thought it he says. “Tomorrow, if you Film Festival (TIFF), and was her past doesn’t dictate her seven Hindi titles; most of India. was rather priceless [for the interview her, and you ask screened at MAMI () present. She’s no angel, but her visibility comes from film] when they spoke like her about her childhood, her and Seminci (Valladolid) then, who is an angel?” trashy, yet catchy, songs that.” schooling, her this year. It has also been The Indian-Canadian such as ‘Baby Doll’ and ‘Pink Given the abandon career, Bigg Boss — you get cherry-picked by Netflix Leone, as has been Lips’. “If people didn’t want with which the two have the same answer. Everybody and iTunes for worldwide exhaustively tom-tommed, to see her, she might have spoken on camera, it’s now gets the same answer. And, distribution. Mehta, a was an adult entertainer gotten one or two jobs, surprising that Leone has now here’s this documentary, respected photojournalist of modest fame in the US. but not enough to sustain. renounced the film. She which is more probing. (“I got my first cover of Then, she arrived in India, as People want to see her in didn’t attend the world This is a very intimate film. Time magazine when I a participant in Bigg Boss’s those suggestive songs with premiere at TIFF, and has Not in terms of sexuality, was 20 years old”) and season 5, and within six minimal clothes on. We’re since claimed this isn’t her but in terms of personality. An Insignificant Man: film-maker Deepa Mehta’s Above: Director of Mostly years became India’s the reason she’s so popular.” story. “I think she made Because if someone wants Sunny, Dilip Mehta A film that follows brother, is a clear-headed most searched personality. In the same breath, Mehta Arvind Kejriwal’s a very poor judgment in to see her pornography, they From left: Scenes from chronicler of Leone’s rise to Sunny Leone's film and “Sunny, as a person, is a is candid about her lack of political rise. not coming,” says Mehta. should go to her website; prominence. He praises her song shoots real winner,” says Mehta. talent. “Her films may not be “She was really celebrated they shouldn’t come to see blockbusters, but producers my film.” with genuine sincerity; he “She’s totally unrepentant DILIP MEHTA COURTESY IMAGES at Toronto. People loved

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