More Mainstream Trouble for Sunny Leone?

MUMBAI, India—Sunny Leone has been the target of conservative religious hate groups in her adopted country for more than a month now, with several bogus obscenity complaints filed against her—and now the controversy has spilled over into her film career.

Sunny is one of the stars of the new "sex comedy" Mastizaade, where she plays twins Laila and Liuly Lele, and at least one of those characters is featured in short-shorts, a low-cut top and holding a pink lollipop, not to mention the poster (above) showing her at the beach in a bikini—and apparently, all that skin is too much for India's Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), better known as the "Censor Board," most of whose members voted to deny the film the "A" rating it needs for release to the moviegoing public.

According to the TimesOfIndia.com website, "Sunny Leone's adult comedy, Mastizaade, has run into trouble with the Censor Board due to its too erotic content. The film hasn't yet been certified by the Censor Board and is flipping to different channels to seek approval, as reported by BollywoodLife.com. Reportedly, while one of the board members had agreed to approve the film with an 'A' certificate, the board collectively refused to certify it. The film was then sent to the Revision Committee who have also refused to pass it. Producer Pritish Nandy has now sent the film to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal to lock its fate and secure a release date for the film."

The movie was something of a departure for Sunny, who'd previously been featured in mostly action/adventure roles in films like Ragini MMS 2 and the recently released Jism 2, but even then, critics and India's unofficial "moral police" faulted her for her past association with the American adult industry—a past she's been working hard to put behind her.

Details about the film are incredibly hard to come by, except for the cast, which includes such Indian favorites as Tusshar Kapoor and Vir Das, and its director, Milap Zaveri, who scored a major hit in 2013 with the sexy comedy Grand Masti. A couple of short trailers can be found here and here, and there's a Facebook page and Twitter feed devoted to the film, but they're remarkable uninformative regarding the plot.

According to an article on LawInfoWire.com, India's Censor Board is among the most conservative of all developed countries, and "regularly orders directors to remove anything it deems offensive or subjects considered to be politically subversive. The censorship of films is governed by the Cinematograph Act, 1952. It assigns certification as Universal, Adults, and Parental Guidance to films in India before public exhibition... The censor board’s job is to control the 'corruption of the mind' and to stop pornographic films. But on the other hand it is ironical that anyone with internet access can see endless amounts of pornography. Today a child with access to internet can see all kinds of pornography by typing three letters 'sex', while the censor board has long discussions on the permissible duration of a kissing scene in a movie."

What will happen to Mastizaade if it should fail its appeal is unknown, except for the fact that it won't be able to be shown in India—and the controversy may make it even harder for Sunny to fulfill her ambition of becoming even more of a major Bollywood star than she already is. But according to her husband/manager Daniel Weber, Sunny already has signed contracts for seven more films and commercials—and who knows? The notoriety surrounding this film, pitted against Sunny's growing popularity, may lead to much-needed reforms regarding sexually oriented speech in one of the world's most populous countries.