"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.

Sunny Leone shoots for the song 'Pink lips' Sunny Leone shoots for the song 'Pink lips'

Mostly Sunny benefits greatly from the complete participation of Leone and Weber, who gave Mehta access to their home, both in Mumbai and Los Angeles, the set of Leone's Hindi films and even a porn film for their banner, SunLust Productions-a threesome shot in an apartment in Los Angeles. "I said I'd only do it if they'd give everything, because if you withhold then what's the point," says Mehta. In the film, Mehta travels with the couple to her family home in Canada and attends a wedding where Leone dances for the groom while his wife stands by the side. "It's insane," says Leone about how people pay to watch her perform at events.

Sunny Leone the star is known to all, but Karenjit Kaur Vohra the daughter, the sister and the Sikh girl from Sarnia is not. Brother Sundeep Singh Vohra aka Sunny, the California-based chef, provides the most insightful bits about her life before she became famous. It is his pet name that Karenjit adopted as her porn moniker in her late teens. The surname comes from Italian filmmaker and spaghetti western genre legend Sergio Leone. The younger sibling went on to sell her scantily-clad, autographed photographs to his collegemates for pocket money. He was the first person she confided in about acting in porn films. "They are remarkably close," says Mehta, who shares a similar rapport with his filmmaker-sister Deepa Mehta. "She has his back and he has hers."

Sundeep is also the only family member willing to talk about Sunny as most of her Indian relatives, both in Canada and the US, where she moved at the age of 14, have abandoned her. Leone explains that when entering the adult film industry, she didn't think of her family or the moral repercussions of her choice. "The Indian community here doesn't want to talk to me," she says. Later, she speaks of how they told her she was "a disgrace to every Indian".

It's Leone's resilience ("Get used to my body because it's not going anywhere") and her vulnerabilities ("I was a loner") that lend Mostly Sunny some of its best moments. They include Leone reminiscing about her father at the gurdwara in Sarnia and her brother's moving revelation of their mother's alcohol addiction, which worsened after she learned of Leone's vocation. Mostly Sunny is also clear that Leone ventured into pornography not because of a traumatic childhood or impoverished conditions at home. "He didn't have to force or cajole me," says Leone about her meeting with the owner of a porn site. More than greed, it was easy money that powered her. "They [the family] definitely didn't get what we wanted," says Leone. She was naive enough to believe that the amount she earned for being Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2003-$100,000-would convince her parents to support her decision.

Mehta almost didn't make the film. Son of a film distributor, he studied in Dehradun, then pursued graphic design in advertising in Toronto. He took up photography, shot for Time and National Geographic magazines and was signed on by Contact Press Images agency. His first film, The Forgotten Woman-on the widows of Vrindavan-caught the attention of the producers. After initially agreeing, Mehta backed out in the aftermath of the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, when Leone was blamed for propagating rape culture because of her earlier work. "Rape existed long before pornography," says Leone. "Stop freaking blaming me."

A meeting with Leone and Weber in Mumbai made Mehta change his mind. He says, "She grew up in a Sikh household, which makes her more Indian at heart than Indians who live here [in India]. She grew up watching Hindi films; so for her it was, and is, a dream come true. In my opinion, her ascending star was on the wane in North America. Out here, they were falling over each other wanting to embrace her." Mehta followed his subject for two years, covering the highs (chartbuster Baby Doll) and lows (film Jackpot) of her career and interviewing lesser-known professionals from the industry, such as three background Bollywood dancers "who want the luxurious life of Leone" as opposed to the dream of wanting to be like Leone.

Mehta covers Leone's continental shift well, but when it comes to her stint in Bollywood-Leone has at least two releases a year-he doesn't have all the answers. So then, why does Sunny Leone still shine? Adman Suhel Seth and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt offer a few theories. "You can be a porn star and still be shy," says Bhatt about her appeal. Seth says Leone's marriage to Weber, her musician boyfriend who became her co-star in porn films, brought her social acceptance.

Mostly Sunny avoids being a hagiographical account and is also non-judgemental of Leone's choices. On Leone and Weber rejecting the film, Mehta says: "Disappointing. It was such an intimate collaboration." The absence of a narrator and Mehta's fly-on-the wall approach brings to the film some much-needed droll moments, which are saved for the last when Leone is shooting for Ek Paheli Leela in Rajasthan. Her co-star Rajneesh Duggal brags about how, unlike him, many actors have reservations working with her.

Bollywood may have welcomed her into its fold, but Leone knows her boundaries or perhaps her limitations. "I'm not a part of the group," she says, giving a glimpse of her loneliness and struggle to fit in. Aamir Khan will stand up for her after she is judged in a news channel interview and Shah Rukh Khan may dance with her (in the forthcoming Raees), but when it comes to being their leading lady, there is still a long way to go.

It's not always sunny in Bollywood.





Follow the writer on Twitter @suhani84

