Why A Sunny Leone Will Always Be Lesser Than A Sanjay Dutt

Sunny Leone is trolled for her biopic ‘Karenjit Kaur’ just because she is a woman, while we find the escapades of ‘Sanju’, the man-child, endearing. This unmasks our double standards.

Sanju, the movie released a few days back amidst much fanfare. I too, a frequent movie-goer, was interested to see this one and I finally did. A saw it as I thought it was made – a director’s tribute to his friend and not a biopic.

Spoilers ahead

It did however majorly highlight his drug problem which cost him precious moments with his mother, a romantic relationship and his career too. What I loved of course was the friendship between Vicky Kaushal’s character and him. A man who in many ways gave him the breath of life. Quite a few times that too!

And of course spoke of him as wrongly accused in terror acts. Do I agree or disagree? Do I believe this narrative or not? Do I agree that the film was an attempt to clean up his image?

I don’t really care. I just went for the movie experience which I thoroughly enjoyed.

However I did get rattled when I saw the reaction to another biopic of sorts. This time the person being Sunny Leone – Karenjit Kaur: The Untold Story of Sunny Leone released yesterday.

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And of course here came the trolls – creeping out from the woodwork. The ones who refuse to admit that they were as eager for this one to be released. The point is simple – if you didn’t really care why would you troll?? Surely you saw the trailer to comment on it. Which makes me wonder – if you think of her as so immoral why bother clicking on her trailer?!

The amount of flak Sunny Leone has received on social media highlights the perverse and hypocritical stance of most Indians.

Here is a woman who is living her life with grace and dignity. She is not a porn star. She is a woman who WAS in a PROFESSION, AS a porn star. This is a woman who is living her life today with as much grace and dignity that one can muster despite being trolled and abused for her body, her choices, her pictures with her children and of course her past. A past which is always made to be a huge part of her present.

Why care that she is a woman who works hard, has been honest about her choices, is not playing victim as she stands by her decision on everything in her life or has worked to get to Bollywood and even youth shows on MTV? But of course the people ‘care’!

“How dare she make a movie on her life and glamorize porn?” “How can she be allowed to be a youth icon?” “How can she expect respect?” “How dare she use the word Kaur in the title and malign a community by associating herself with it?”

How, How, How!

So then why don’t we ask these HOW questions instead –

1. “How was she able to maintain her calm and cool in perhaps the most uncomfortable interview ever with a douchebag of a host who seemed to be more interested in making her skin crawl and sound pious himself than actually interview her unbiased and without judgement?

1. “How has she been considered a bad person to work with if she is genuinely fun and knows she has to work twice as hard to prove herself?”
2. “How can she be the worst influence when she did what most people can’t – adopt three children and provide for them a happy home and life?” (Trolls rather want to focus on calling it a PR strategy!)
3. “How is she a bad mother if she was in the adult movie business? Do maternal instincts, love, affection happen to be dictated by one’s profession and ambition?”
4. “How is it that we laugh at (and accept as ‘hota hai’) a Sanju sleeping with 300 plus women, and speaking of that so casually in front of his wife and a stranger (plus flirting with the second woman and sleeping with the best friend’s girlfriend) and find that endearing (his personal choice by the way), yet a Sunny Leone is immoral and indecent for being in a profession of a sexual nature?

Those who think feminism is just another word or something for us women to cry and scream bloody murder – the answer is simple.

Basic biology.

Sanju is a man. Sunny is a woman.

We praise and forgive a Sanju for any choices he may have made in his life no matter how awful. But a Sunny must go through life being cursed, questioned, judged and trolled for the same.

Think about it –:

The ‘Victim Card’ was used and glorified immensely in the movie ‘Sanju’ rather than ‘Karenjit Kaur’. She in turn owned her actions and choices.

Yet, WE are the ones as women who play victim and are ‘feminists’. Supreme logic by moral Indians, isn’t it?

Header image source: YouTube/Movie promos

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