Her calculated seduction of Indian society isn’t about starting a new career, it’s about promoting the only real career

 I was sitting in a restaurant the other night,” Sunny Leone giggled, her brightly-coloured fingernails curling in her palms, “and aunties and uncles with their kids came looking for an autograph! I’ve never had nine- and ten-year-old boys ask me for an autograph before.”

Leone is right to be surprised. She has, after all, built her name and reputation as a porn star. And when Leone became a household Indian name last winter, thanks to her participation in Bigg Boss 5 (a reality show structured around the format of the Dutch-created, mega-franchise Big Brother), a public controversy erupted over her supposed “past”. It was enough to incite the Press Council of India (PCI) to weigh in on her growing popularity.

“My opinion is that Sunny Leone was earning her livelihood in America in a manner acceptable in that country, though it is not acceptable in India,” read a statement by Markandey Katju, the PCI chief. “There is no saint without a past, and no sinner without a future,” he added. But what was striking about Katju’s statements, and the debate surrounding Leone at large, was the expressed interest in her supposed past and future. Sunny Leone “was earning her livelihood”: the implication being that Leone somehow arrived on Indian shores seeking an entirely new life. Leone’s extremely popular website, however, broadcasts a different narrative to the millions of men (and perhaps women) who actively visit it: “Goddess”, a clickable icon proclaims in reference to Leone, “Watch Sunny’s first B/G [Boy/Girl] anal scene.”

Leone’s future, it would seem, does not involve any deliberation about whether she wants to be a sinner or a saint. What is most fascinating about the story that’s being told about her rise to mainstream Indian stardom – including the rash of rumours about Bollywood castings, and asinine celebrity gossip linking her romantically to Indian male celebs (Leone is, in fact, a married woman) – is that it misunderstands the obvious truth: Leone is exploiting her ethnicity (and, for that matter, cultural issues of Indian male sexual repression) for money. According to an article inMint, Leone’s X-rated website saw an increase in traffic numbering somewhere around 630 per cent during the run of Bigg Boss 5. Her website was (at the height of the show’s popularity) ranked at 296 in terms of viewership in India. (As a comparison point, the paper notes, the website for The Indian Express fell 15 slots behind it.) Charging over `1,000 in monthly subscription, Leone’s foray into the consciousness of Indians has earned her a lot of money, perhaps more than she could have earned as a B-grade Bollywood actress.

Strikingly attractive in person, Leone’s brown eyes brim with the confidence of a woman who has been told her entire life that she is good-looking, and been paid well for it. When asked about how active she is in the porn industry, Leone is completely forthright. “Oh, I’m not done,” she smiles, “I’m going home now to [host] the AVN [Adult Video News] awards in Las Vegas.” The AVN awards, heavily protested against in America by feminists and Christian groups, and referred to affectionately by insiders as the “Oscars of porn”, is hardly the place to go when a woman wants to escape her promiscuous past. It’s also located not too far from Leone’s wealthy and comfortable life in California.