Sunny Leone did not seem giddy on the Cannes red carpet ahead of the premiere of her cop noir film Kennedy in the Midnight Screenings section of the French film festival on Thursday. Sharing her journey from the adult entertainment industry to Bollywood, the actress said the tickets for the Anurag Kashyap directorial sold out within minutes at the prestigious film festival in France.
The actress shared a photo with Anurag Kashyap from Cannes 2023 on Instagram on Tuesday. “Our Film #Kennedy official tickets! Sold out in minutes…so proud!” she wrote.
Recounting her journey in an interview with US entertainment magazine Deadline, the former adult star-turned-Bollywood actress said the course of her career changed after she got selected for the Salman Khan-hosted Bigg Boss season 5.
However, the 42-year-old Canadian-Indian actress, who plays the role of a femme fatale in Kennedy, did not find it all easy at the beginning. She received death threats and bomb threats ahead of starring in the reality show. “Right before getting on the show, there were a lot of hurdles. There were death threats and bomb threats. The CEO of Viacom, I believe, resigned because of this pressure.”
Sunny credited her then-boyfriend (now husband) Daniel Weber for convincing her to appear on the show. She said Bigg Boss made her a familiar face in Indian households and helped her kickstart her acting career in Bollywood. “I think people related to — I was human, and not jumping on tables and doing all sorts of crazy stuff. They related with me the person, cooking, cleaning …that’s what they connected with. People connected with that girl on Big Boss and disconnected with Sunny Leone from the adult entertainment industry,” she explained.
It was during her time at Bigg Boss when filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt came on the show as a guest and offered her a leading role in Jism 2 (2012) opposite Randeep Hooda.
In Kennedy, Sunny stars alongside Rahul Bhat, who plays an insomniac ex-cop looking for redemption. Presumed dead, the ex-cop operates secretly within the corrupt justice system.
