LOS ANGELES — XBIZ TV on Tuesday debuted an exclusive new video interview with award-winning adult film actress Sunny Leone.
Leone spoke with XBIZ in the midst of her final preparations for India, where she is slated to begin shooting her Bollywood film debut in “Jism 2” this month.
The performer’s popularity in India skyrocketed as a result of her six-week run on the reality TV show “Big Boss 5,” the equivalent of “Big Brother” in the U.S. During the show Leone was approached by prominent Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt with the Bollywood offer.
“I’ve always had a fan following in India — a lot of my website traffic comes from India — but I’ve never really tapped into the Indian market until I was on this show,” the Indian-Canadian star told XBIZ Managing Editor Dan Miller. “I was on this show for six weeks and I was in 25 to 45 million homes every night at 10 o’clock. There was a new show on every single day of the week. It was a really amazing experience and from that for the first time in Indian television history a director came on television and wanted to sign an actor right on the spot, which happened to be me.”
“Jism” means “body” in Hindi, the official language of India. Leone said that Bhatt is one of India’s most respected Bollywood producers. Bhatt wrote “Jism 2” and his daughter Pooja will direct the film. Leone told Miller that appearing on the reality show, accepting the Bollywood offer and then fielding dozens more movie and endorsement offers has been “the craziest thing that’s ever happened in my life.”
“I don’t understand it just yet,” Leone continued. “I don’t understand their obsession and fascination with me, but I’m not complaining. I think it’s amazing and I’m very, very flattered.”
The interest in Leone is evident from the huge spike in traffic to her official website SunnyLeone.com. In the interview, the 2003 Penthouse Pet of the Year and Vivid Girl also discussed what it meant to win the coveted Porn Star Site of the Year award at the 2012 XBIZ Awards show in January.