Sunny Leone defends ‘item songs’ in films: ‘It’s not objectification, just entertainment’

‘None of us will have jobs’

A reporter asked Sunny about her ‘numerous item songs’, adding, “Certain people think these songs objectify women, there’s another view that these songs show women on a big scale…” But before the reporter could finish, Sunny got defensive, “So, the only person that uses the first part of your sentence (objectification) is only the media.”

Sunny also claimed that numerous people come to theatres just to enjoy these songs and recollected when she saw a video of people of Kerala dancing to her numbers. “Thousands of people come to theatres to watch movies because of these songs. We are now coming out of that generation but there was a time when people, I remember people in Kerala dancing on stage,” she said.

The actor stated that she viewed it as ‘entertainment and enjoyment’ and not ‘objectification’ claiming that usage of the term ‘objectification’ will some day lead to losing jobs. She said, “Now, you tell me, that’s not objectification, that’s enjoyment. That is entertainment and that’s what we are able to do that for the audience. We have to stop using the term and ensure that cinema is back on top, we all have to work together, otherwise none of us will have jobs.”

Through her career, Sunny has featured in special numbers like Low Aana Lifeu, Sesamma, Trippy Trippy and Deo Deo. She will soon star in the Malayalam films Rangeela and Shero, Tamil films Veeramadevi, Quotation Gang Part 1, Kannada film UI and Hindi films Koka Kola and Helen. She also features in a special number in The Battle of Bhima Koregaon.

About Petta Rap

Vivek Prasanna, Bagavathi Perumal and Kalabhavan Shajohn also star in Petta Rap, named after Prabhu’s famous number from the 1994 film Kadhalan. The film tells the story of a man and woman who aim to be an action hero and a pop singer.

At the same press meet, director Sinu revealed that they opted to make the film in Tamil and cast Prabhu as it required a lot of ‘dance moves’. “We didn’t think it would be easy to find an actor in Kerala who could be a part of a complete dance musical, so we roped in Prabhu Deva,” he said.