What India thinks of Sunny Leone

As Sunny Leone's film Mastizaade hit screens amidst a wave of unprecedented social media support for her, Ritika Bhatia finds out what India thinks of the actor.

'Oh my god, oh my god, I think I'm having a total fan-girl moment,' squeals a visibly excited Sunny Leone in the middle of our chat at Mumbai's JW Marriott upon learning that Vidya Balan is around.

Leone had previously stated in interviews how she has always felt like the elephant in the room in esteemed Bollywood company.

That seems set to change after her interview with Bhupendra Chaubey on CNN-IBN.

Leone has become Twitter's darling after battling hostile, prejudiced questions with wit, poise and bravado.

A host of celebrities such as Anushka Sharma, Alia Bhatt, Aamir Khan and Balan have lent their support to Leone and hailed her 'rockstar' attitude.

Balan has heard that Leone is in the vicinity and comes swishing by for a quick meet-and-greet. The two embrace like old friends.

he image makeover is complete. That she was a porn star, born and brought up in Canada as Karenjit Kaur Vohra, who relocated to India and became a household name as a mainstream Bollywood actor is, in itself, a commendable feat.

So what has changed in the past week?

"I think people had never heard someone talk freely and honestly, which made a big difference in how they saw me," says the 34 year old whose adult film career started at 19.

"I don't regret my past and I wasn't apologetic. I've never said anything bad about this or that industry," she says. "The way I see it, if I change one person's view about who they think I am, then that's all I want -- one person at a time."

Prabhat Choudhary, co-owner, Spice PR, believes that in the last four years, Indian society's attitudes towards sex have undergone a change and Leone has been the precipitator behind it.

"The way she has conducted herself has changed her perception in the minds of the public. The grace with which she handled that interview has earned her a lot of public respect," he says. "Her concepts are very progressive and she articulated them eloquently."

He believes that a lot of celebrities have also appreciated her because they were seeing Leone as an individual for the first time. "She may have done B-grade films, but that interview was A-grade. She made us aware of her personality, separate from her work and the genre that she has come to represent."