‘People who judge can keep judging,’ says Sunny Leone, as she opens up on films, family, adoption and mental health

The show means so much to me. It’s so much fun to host Splitsvilla every single year and to be asked to do it every single year is an honour for me, because I grew up watching MTV, those first reality shows and I always wanted to be a VJ on MTV; I thought it was the coolest channel ever with the coolest shows.

The scene would play out really awkward if I ran into my ex, because my last ex (before Daniel Weber) was someone that I was supposed to get married to — it would be really awkward! I don’t think it would play out as a good experience on any level, so, I probably would just avoid, ignore and walk away, in the other direction.

Bigg Boss brought me here. At first I thought, maybe, I’ll just go back and forth from America to India. But slowly, all that changed and it went to getting my first apartment here, then getting a car, then getting stuff, then getting a driver, doing all these things and becoming so busy; and also growing my business here. From that first show, I now have a cosmetic line called Star Struck, which is amazing and that’s all homegrown here in India. Being a part of Splitsvilla for the last nine years has been so much fun and of course, all the work in between. So it went from thinking: I was going to go back and forth to — “I never want to leave India.” I love it here and I’m raising my family here; and it’s great.

I think that every single year when you’re in the entertainment industry, whether it’s here in Bollywood or anywhere in the world, you’re going to evolve, you’re going to grow. You’re going to learn so much about yourself and within the industry. So, it’s definitely a learning experience every step of the way.

The most challenging? It would be something that’s going to come out in the next couple of weeks. It’s called Quotation Gang. I think that was challenging. First of all, it is in a language (Tamil) I don’t understand. I had to learn it. Second, I was doing a completely de-glam look and some people say that they didn’t recognise me! So, it was something that I have definitely not done in the past — that was very interesting.

There are a couple of South films that are in the pipeline right now, which is exciting.

I have always been drawn to the South film industry. I think that it’s amazing. The people have always been so nice and so warm. I’ve worked with all sorts of different people from different areas and I think that’s it. I think it comes down to doing good work with nice people.

I think that that’s complex. We dealt with all sorts of different issues and emotions this year and I found some things quite alarming. I found some things quite disturbing, with how this new generation is dealing with emotions, how they deal with different situations. I do believe that this word ‘panic attack’ needs to not be taken lightly in saying that, “you’re just having a panic attack!” instead of knowing what a real one is. I think that there needs to be some education provided to a lot of young people out there to know that it’s not a joking matter and if you do need help, then you know there are certain people around you that can definitely guide you. Most importantly, I think that there definitely needs to be a switch in how some of these words are used.

To couples out there that are considering adoption, I’d say: go for it. It’s a beautiful journey. I wouldn’t say that it’s always a happy one. It’s challenging at certain times; you have to be able to understand the child that’s in front of you and mainly their emotions, because what they’re going through, sometimes, emotionally, we will not understand, but we have to be there for them and we have to teach them and love them. I do believe that love prevails over everything. You know, we have an amazing daughter who is so loving, so caring, empathetic and extremely intelligent. I think she’s smarter than all of us. She’s definitely smarter than me. You know, it’s definitely a beautiful journey.

I do believe that we make a big conscious effort to speak to our children when there are cameras around. They’re getting a little bit older, so their questions are becoming a little bit more sophisticated. My analogy right now is, “Look, if I was the Hulk or Superman or Batman, you would want to come take a picture with me too.” So, I try and give them analogies of, you know, the entertainment world and who I am, based on their age and their mental understanding of things.

I wanted to launch a brand here in India with great quality products, the formulas needed to be amazing and at affordable prices, because when I was growing up, I didn’t have what I have now. My children will never face that either. But when I was growing up, I worked really hard for that two packs of eyeshadow and when I brought it home, it was so bad, it didn’t even stay on my face. I think that was one of the most frustrating things, because when you buy something and it doesn’t work, it’s very disappointing. So, I wanted to create products for all those people out there that maybe don’t want to buy these crazy, high-end products at these crazy prices that are unreasonable, and give them something that is amazing, high quality and (based on) good formulas.

Well, our studio does more than produce films. I personally am not always in the viewpoint that we should produce big films. My husband is. He’s always on the lookout for different films and I think it will be amazing if we can produce a film under our company.

I definitely do not want to be a director. I think that this is a skill that is learned and something that is not only learned, but it’s something that should be a part of who you are. I believe that directors are very, very special people. They have the ability to make something so beautiful, or, if they’re not so good, make something really bad — and you need the right people and the right team. I’d rather be the producer and I’d rather be someone who’s that person calling the artistes to come to set or helping with the directional team, than be a director.