Sunny Leone returned to India six months ago after a long stay in her Los Angeles residence. However, the second wave of COVID-19 struck soon after, and progress came to a halt. Sunny has a number of projects in the works, including the Malayalam film Shero, in which she plays a pivotal role. The actress believes she now has enough time to prepare for the film while still spending time with her three children, Nisha, Noah, and Asher, at home. “I am not the only artist doing that,” she says of working from home. This phase is used by everyone to learn their scripts, develop their characters, and get ready for their parts. This time is being put to good use before we return to our full-time job.Sunny, like many other women who juggle work and keeping their kids occupied at home, organises her schedule around her kids. “There are so many times when I’m working on a script over a video connection and my daughter is in the same room doing a puzzle with her teacher’s help. I want my children to be around me.
“Right now, we know how much time we need to allot for each activity in the day,” Sunny says. It’s very much set in stone. Before a film gets to the floors, this is the most dedicated time to work on it. Nothing can detract from your focus… There are no events or other responsibilities; it’s just you and your family. It works in my favour. Malayalam is already being taught to me by a tutor. The project will take a few months to get off the ground, and my role does not require me to be fluent in the language. In this sense, my team has been quite proactive in selecting online workshops for me. Things would have turned out differently in a regular situation.”
Sunny had travelled down South for a shoot a few months before to the lockdown, and she was accompanied by her children. Was she worried about bringing them on set? “My kids spend time in the vanity van , but I don’t take them on set with me. We make a chart for them that shows what they need to get done during the day. When my children and I travelled together this time, we all kept within our bio-bubble. There was no one entering or exiting it. We were also tested on a regular basis. We didn’t have any COVID-19 cases during the shoot. The point is, we’ve been living such confined lives for the past year that even a little breather respit within a bio-bubble was a welcome break for the kids.”
Sunny says she is exceedingly cautious and takes all precautions to keep her family safe, but she hopes that the anxiety will subside in the future. “Today, I believe we should adopt a method of being clean and hygienic for the long term. But we must work toward a future when it is OK to fall, touch the ground, sit on the grass, and live without fear of what is around me or who has come before me. Our stress levels have risen as a result of our constant protective mode as parents. We’re always worrying about where the kids are, what they’re touching, if they’re wearing masks, etc. I’m looking forward to the day when we won’t have to distance ourselves from our neighbours and can once again be around people.”
Hey, my name is Meenakshi Sharma. I am a news writer at Review Minute. I have a keen interest in writing about the latest happenings in the Bollywood world.