In the actress' documentary, Mostly Sunny, Colors CEO Raj Nayak revealed that the show's creative team developed cold feet and nearly decided to drop the former adult entertainment actress.
How Sunny Leone's Bigg Boss dreams nearly failed before taking off
22 Oct 2016 13:09 IST
Updated : 13:09 IST
Mayur Lookhar
Sunny Leone owes her career to Bigg Boss. If it wasn't for the reality TV show, Leone couldn't have found the fan following that ensured her success in the Hindi film industry. After all, it was on the show that Mahesh Bhatt offered her Jism 2. Leone has since gone on to become a popular face of Hindi cinema. However, from the recent documentary about the actress, we now learn that the very show which had brought her to India, wasn’t keen to have her.
The sensational disclosure was made by none other than Colors CEO Raj Nayak in Sunny Leone’s biopic, Mostly Sunny , screened at the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) film festival yesterday.
“The show's creative team had considered having her as one of the contestants, but then decided to drop her. When the matter came to me, I asked them why was she dropped? I’d never heard of Sunny Leone, nor did I ever watch her films. My team told me she’s a porn star. I said 'So what if she’s porn star?' As a CEO, I could take any decision, and so we decided to have her.”, Nayak told in Mostly Sunny.
Surprisingly, Nayak did not pay much attention to the issue, or the actress later. He said, “After this meet, I’d totally forgotten about her. In fact, I could not even recollect her name. There was a huge media frenzy over her arrival. My team briefed me about it and I asked, ‘Sunny who? It was then that I googled her videos. We were tensed, fearing whether there would be any protests or trouble on her arrival. I got a message late night that things went smoothly, and about the huge media contingent that welcomed her.”
Interestingly, Leone had never even heard of Bigg Boss, and her husband Daniel Weber had outright rejected the first call by the channel. It was only after the offer was made to the tune of an amount worth more than 100,000 dollars that they rethought the decision.
Regardless of the price paid, the channel certainly doesn't seem to regret the decision. Sunny Leone’s presence only lifted an otherwise sagging season five of Bigg Boss. The actress hasn't looked back either since that momentous show.
