Having met Sunny Leone a couple of times now, I can say one thing, she is one of the most affable celebrities I’ve met. She arrives with her entourage, the faces I’ve always spotted with her. But this time, one person was missing, her husband, Daniel Weber. He was back home with their kids, Nisha Kaur Weber, Asher Singh Weber and Noah Singh Weber, Sunny shared. As we settling in for the interview at the Zee music company office, she apologies for taking a minute more to check if ‘nothing crazy is going on at her house’. “We’ve met before,” she says as I’m introduced to her. After exchanging greetings, we begin with our interview and talk about a number of things from her web show- Karenjit Kaur – The Untold Story of Sunny Leone, Bollywood journey to her children, her husband and more.
Excerpts:
Did shooting for Karenjit Kaur – The Untold Story of Sunny Leone bring back a lot of memories, especially from your childhood?
Of course, it brought back all those memories because the stories that I told are real. They are stories, incidents and things that actually did happen. So it was really difficult to shoot this. It wasn’t easy at all. The second season, it just destroyed me, emotionally it destroyed me. So took me a while to come out of that.
How do you decide which stories from your life are going to be a part of the show?
Our process started a couple of years ago. The writer (Karan Shrikant Sharma) and I sat down for around six months and he just asked me questions. He just asked me about certain incidents and things that he found online. It was more about me telling him a timeline of so many different questions that he had from childhood to teenage to being a young adult to getting into the adult industry to how I came here. How exactly can you sum up all these years into two seasons, how can you do that? But he did it in two seasons. So he took those stories and created into a timeline, so this is Karan’s great writing, not mine. That is how he created that timeline, he did a good job.
How you were as a child?
I think that I was more on the independent side, your good Indian girl. Yes, I was really independent growing up and that is what you can see in the story as well in both the seasons.
Whenever we have met you, we have always seen Daniel around. He has been your pillar of strength always. Of course, he is an important part of your life. Do you fall back on him for everything?
I think one year in a marriage and it is a good healthy relationship, then, of course, you fall on each other for everything. We did business together, so it’s a very different type of relationship. He is so incredibly intelligent and amazing at the business that I can say, ‘Daniel I want to create a cosmetic line’ and he says, ‘okay let’s do it’. Then he puts the puzzle pieces together and I’m the creative side. So it is definitely a collaborated thing between me and Daniel and our entire team. It is like a nice synergy that we have between the creative side and business side and how he handles everything. He handles so many things, he wears many hats. He handles our production house, he handles me, our children, our household. You just name it and he is a part of it and doing it. We have an amazing team that also helps out but he is the final stock when things need to be done. It’s amazing how much he handles. I don’t think I give him enough credit, maybe I’ll do that when I go home.
Talking about your children, we have seen them with you at the airport, around the city and I’ve to say, they are adorable. Do you just look forward to going home and spending time with them?
Thank you! And yes, you have no idea. My entire day is ‘how to spend more time with my family’. We have been really blessed and lucky. Our businesses are doing great, we have a great time with our children and being able to spend very special moments– like Daniel and I are extremely hands on. At 5 in the morning, we both are changing diapers and warming up the milk. All my kids have been through sleep training so they sleep for 10 to 12 hours, so the 10-hour mark, one of them is awake, which is at 5. But we both are hopping out of bed, it’s not like you go and deal with it. It’s never been the case at all. It’s both of us getting up changing diapers together, one’s warming up the bottle, I’m doing something else and he’s doing something else. Even in the middle of the night, when it’s so dark, one of them is looking up at you, it is the sweetest thing ever. So cute.
What’s the best part about motherhood and has it changed you in any way?
Oh yes, I think it has changed me so much, but for the better. I have more patience and I know time management a little better or maybe it is so bad but we are doing pretty good. The best part is when they look at you and they’re just so happy and are smiling. I have three babies that wake up every day, smiling. It is the most amazing thing, they don’t wake up cranky, they don’t wake up sad or crying, they wake up the biggest smile. It is the best thing to see ever.
This morning Nisha (her daughter) was feeding the boys, it is so adorable. She was like, “Noah open your mouth”. And then she fed Asher after. It’s beyond precious to watch like your little girl feeding the boys and they are responding and eating. Asher wasn’t eating so she (Nisha) stepped in, sat on the chair and then Asher was happily eating. They weren’t eating from me, but they were eating for her. But then that’s fine because it really helps her being involved with her brothers. She loves them and they adore her. Noah’s first move every single morning is to walk to Nisha’s room and goes ‘Didi’. Then we have to tell him that ‘She is sleeping. she went nini’. Then he will walk away. Every single day he walks straight to her room and it is so cute.
Sunny, when you initially started off in the industry, you didn’t have anyone to really to guide you. How would you sum up your journey till date and are you content with it?
Oh, I’m so happy with everything that has happened. I have had a great time being here and I don’t think it’s over. I think that there are so many more things that Daniel and I going to be getting into or things that I want to do, with all that, it’s absolutely amazing. And of course, when you get into any industry, you don’t know anyone; I still don’t know a lot of people. But I feel blessed that we are busy and we are working because in my head I know numbers, statistics, what we should be doing. So for me, if I’m working more than I did last year, or we are doing things that are bigger and better than we did last year, then that’s what matters to me.
I love the fact that you have never shied away from acknowledging anything that has been a part of your life and the choices that you have made. A lot of people have criticised it but a number of them have also applauded you. How do you manage to stay unaffected and positive about everything?
Because I’m living the dream seriously, I’m living the dream that most people wished they could live through. And those few people that have something bad to say, they are not affecting my immediate circle. So of course, it’s not going to affect me. The only time that it does is if I know that reporter, that online portal, newspaper or that person who is saying those things. Because then I wonder what their motives are when I see them again. When it comes to the industry, it’s very small, that is the only time it affects me. I love everything that I get to do every single day.