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Mostly Sunny director Dilip Mehta is disappointed with Sunny Leone’s reaction to his documentary film about her life, which was also well received at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this year. While Sunny recently told PTI that she hopes the film doesn’t come to India, she also said that the story is not hers, since it’s someone else’s vision and opinion.
In this interview, Dilip Mehta responds to the accusations made by the actress and clarifies his intention behind making the film.
Dilip Mehta: I read Sunny Leone ‘s statement with disappointment and mild amusement. Since she’s been ‘honest’ about her past, audiences should now definitely see my film Mostly Sunny, and decide for themselves whether the documentary is a figment of my imagination, or an honest journalistic portrayal of an unapologetic, unrepentant former porn star, who’s taken India by storm with her entry into Bollywood. I wish her well but she shouldn’t paint every journalist with the CNN IBN brush. (Sunny’s interview with a CNN-IBN journalist where she was quizzed about her pornographic past was labeled ‘intrusive’)
Dilip Mehta: Sunny drives the film. It’s her narrative. Her younger brother Sunny (who’s name she assumed) is another driving force in the film, and his presence in the film is endearing and very very sympathetic. I wonder at times which film are Sunny and Daniel referring to? It certainly doesn’t sound like Mostly Sunny.
Dilip Mehta: In the many interviews we did over a couple of years, all have been on camera.
Dilip Mehta: Why not? What is Sunny attempting to conceal? I have not tainted nor defiled her. It’s because I like her enormously that I took on this herculean project. Why is she suddenly in denial, trying to slander a likeable protrayal and our effort at an accurate depiction?
Dilip Mehta: I challenge Sunny to deny the content of the film pertaining to her life, from her childhood to her adolescence to her adulthood. She and her husband are quoted (and shown) liberally in the documentary. Her colleagues have spoken of her and of her past avatar as an adult entertainer. Her parents and friends have spoken of her childhood years in the city of her birth in Canda, but not disparagingly.
Dilip Mehta: The documentary is carefully crafted to narrate her life’s trajectory.
Q: Sunny claims, ‘Its not a biopic made on my life, where you can manipulate and say what you want.’?
Dilip Mehta: I resent accusations of my manipulating the film. Sunny and her husband, her brother and her friends and colleagues do the talking. I have not spoken a word in the film.
Dilip Mehta: In the making of this film, my team and I took no cinematic liberties. This is a documentary, not a fiction drama. This film is not feeding to the masses the same story that Sunny has been spinning for public consumption. There’s more. We’re intelligent filmmakers who have meticulously woven a serious film, not catering to her vanity, but admiring her for the tenacity to stand up to adversity.
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