- published: 11 Apr 2016
- views: 10449
Not to be confused with pornographic actress Sunny Lane.
Sunny Leone (born May 13, 1981) is an Indo-Canadian pornographic actress, actress, businesswoman and model of dual Canadian/American nationality. She was named Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2003 and was a contract star for Vivid Entertainment. Named by Maxim as one of the 12 top porn stars in 2010, she has also played roles in independent mainstream films and television shows.
Leone was born in Sarnia, Ontario to Sikh Punjabi parents from India. Her father was born in Tibet and raised in Delhi, while her mother (who died in 2008) was from a small town named Nahan in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh. As a young girl, she was very athletic and played street hockey with the boys, enjoyed ice skating on a nearby frozen lake and drinking hot chocolate in front of a fire after playing in the snow all day.
Though she was raised as a Sikh, her parents enrolled her in a Catholic school, as it was felt to be unsafe for her to go to public school. There she had her first kiss at 11, lost her virginity to a basketball player at another school at 16, and discovered that she was bisexual at 18. When she was 13, her family moved to Fort Gratiot, Michigan, then to Lake Forest, California a year later, fulfilling her grandparents' dream that the family be together in one place. She graduated from high school in 1999 and enrolled in college.
Aishwarya Rai, known also as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan after her marriage (Tulu pronunciation [əjɕʋərjaː rəj]; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian film actress. She worked as a model before starting her acting career, and ultimately won the Miss World pageant in 1994. Rai has featured in films in various languages including Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali.
Often cited by the media as the "most beautiful woman in the world", Rai made her acting debut with Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Iruvar (1997), and had her first commercial success in Jeans (1998). She found success in Bollywood with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Devdas (2002) and eventually won two Filmfare Awards in the Best Actress category.
After a series of unsuccessful films during 2003–2005, she appeared in the blockbuster action thriller Dhoom 2 (2006) and subsequently featured in such films as Guru (2007), Jodhaa Akbar (2008), and Enthiran (2010). She gained critical acclaim for her performances in offbeat, independent films such as Chokher Bali (2003), Raincoat (2004), and Provoked (2007). Rai has thus established herself as one of the leading contemporary actresses of Indian cinema.