Can biopics be 100% real? Sunny Leone reveals how difficult it was to revisit the past for Karenjit Kaur — The Untold Story, a web series based on her life.
Thanks to ConnectedtoIndia.com for the footage!
Thanks to ConnectedtoIndia.com for the footage!
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Short filmTranscript
00:00To wake up in the morning and go back to that house was very difficult.
00:04I left the industry way before I'd come to India and yeah of course I was totally scared
00:14and didn't know what was going to happen and didn't think anybody would accept me.
00:19It's often said that biopics are not really 100% true but with Karanji's car I doubt how
00:26much of that saying is true.
00:28I've got Sunny Leone herself to clarify to me whether Karanjit Kaur is actually the story
00:34of Sunny Leone.
00:35Yeah, it's pretty much the story of how things happened.
00:39I told so many stories and obviously all those stories didn't make it inside of both seasons
00:48but all the stories that were told are stories that happened, things that happened, people
00:56that I met or even some of the dialogue between myself and my parents.
01:02Those dialogues are very real.
01:05So yeah, you can name any part of the story and I'll tell you the story of what happened.
01:12So I really want to know, how does this thing really work?
01:15The production house and Daniel had spoken and they all came to me and said that they
01:20want to make a biopic on my life.
01:23My first instinct and answer is no, I don't want to do that because who wants to go down
01:32that path again?
01:34Not me.
01:36And I'd just gotten out of an experience where a director had taken advantage and didn't
01:40tell the story the way it should.
01:41It was his vision and his view of what that story should be.
01:46So I didn't think that was fair.
01:49Then they said, we don't want to just show the adult industry and that's what people
01:55would be curious about.
01:57We want to show where you were from and where you were born and things that happened and
02:02funny things that happened and your childhood dynamic between your parents and being an
02:07immigrant first generation family in Canada and how you guys dealt with it and so many
02:14different little things like that.
02:16So that was intriguing to me because for me, if I was going to consider and go down
02:23this road, then it should be the truth.
02:26I don't know how to live my life any other way.
02:31So the stories that were told, they were all very real.
02:36The writer and I sat on my couch for probably about six months, back and forth, just telling
02:43stories.
02:44He would sit with me for so many hours and he'd leave for two, three weeks.
02:48He'd come back.
02:49He'd process everything that we had talked about and then come back to me with more questions
02:55and come back again.
02:56So this went on for about six months of collecting stories and hearing stories and crying and
03:03laughing and being angry and upset and so many different things.
03:08And you know those deja vu moments happening.
03:11Yeah, deja vu moments that are not so great to have deja vu and telling certain lines
03:18and parts of the story.
03:21So that was difficult.
03:24And then shooting it was a whole other process.
03:28It's all pretty real.
03:29So a lot of companies wanted to change it.
03:32I am lucky.
03:33I had a production house and my husband and the writers that were just dead on it staying
03:39the way that it was.
03:41And finding the right people and the right portal to release that information was important
03:48because it couldn't be this battle while it was being shot or while it was being finalized
03:56that no, no, no, we want it to be more like this and wanting to change things.
04:02So they didn't do that, which I think is the reason why people have liked it.
04:10Your answer also puts me into a question that you initially said that who wants to
04:16walk that path again?
04:18But then for your own biopic, you chose to act.
04:21How easy or difficult was it for you to convince yourself to walk that path again?
04:26To wake up in the morning and go back to that house was very difficult.
04:33It wasn't easy.
04:34For me in my head, I'm like, okay, I've made a decision.
04:37This is what's going to happen.
04:39This is what we're going to do.
04:40And there were many times because I was so upset and I was upset or angry or sad or depressed
04:47and crying and all these different things and Dan was like, okay, we'll just give the
04:50money back.
04:51I'm like, well, that doesn't work like that in my head.
04:54I know he's just saying it.
04:55You did get that thought?
04:56No, he said it out loud many times.
04:59And I know he's just saying it just to say it.
05:02He knows in my personality, I wouldn't say, okay, fine, yeah, that's fine.
05:07Let's just drop it and say, forget it all and give their money back to them and we won't
05:13shoot it.
05:15That doesn't work like that for me at all.
05:18So he did say that.
05:21And I said, no, I've already committed.
05:23I'm going down this path.
05:26And Daniel's biggest thing is that he's a fixer.
05:30He wants to fix what the problem is.
05:32He wants me to be happy and he wants me to smile all the time and just be happy.
05:38He wants me to be a happy person.
05:39But the thing is, there's some things you can't change and some things, no matter how
05:43much you tell me to separate myself from the subject, it's not going to happen.
05:48It's my life.
05:49It's my, you know, these are my parents and this is my brother and these are the situations
05:54that happen.
05:55They're not really my parents, but they're playing those.
05:58It's very, it's a very real situation when you walk into a house and all of a sudden
06:05there's pictures of your actual parents on the walls and my brother on the walls and
06:11childhood pictures on the walls.
06:13It's very, it's very, very difficult.
06:18But I'd committed and once you commit, you don't go back.
06:23Definitely a big salute to you for that.
06:25Obviously, you know, from LA, you had to come to India, being, you know, a person of an
06:31Indian origin, what was it like for you when you came to India after leaving the adult
06:37industry?
06:38What did you think of, you know, meeting people, how they would probably react to a sunny journey,
06:43how they would look up to you?
06:45What was it like?
06:46Well, it left the industry way before I'd come to India.
06:51And yeah, of course, I was totally scared and didn't know what was going to happen and
06:58didn't think anybody would accept me and let alone be here for the last day over eight
07:04years now.
07:07I thought I'd be there.
07:08I thought I would be here for maybe two, three weeks, max, and then I would just go home
07:14and I'd go back and living in my bubble there and maybe put a down payment on a house and,
07:20you know, that was it.
07:22That was my intention.
07:23There was nothing, there was nothing else.
07:26Not this, okay, I'm going to enter Bollywood and I'm going to do all these things.
07:30First of all, I didn't even think that I would be able to step foot into, onto a national
07:35television show that's being played and presented all over India.
07:42That in itself was, that was the goal, just might get one foot in the door.
07:47Even if it was one frame on TV, that to me was an accomplishment.
07:52So there was nothing, there was no thought process of what was going to happen after.
07:58So I was very scared.
08:00Daniel was scared.
08:01I was dropped in this house.
08:02I didn't know anything.
08:03I didn't know anyone and then made it through several weeks of being there.