Pooja Bhatt, in a new interview, shared that she initially wanted to cast Sunny Leone in her 2003 film Jism before the role went to Bipasha Basu.
Pooja Bhatt’s 2003 erotic thriller Jism starring John Abraham and Bipasha Basu was a sleeper hit at the box office and is still remembered for MM Keeravani’s soulful music. But do you guys know that Pooja initially wanted to cast Sunny Leone opposite John Abraham before she finalized Bipasha Basu as the leading lady?
Recently, in a chat with Siddharth Kannan, Pooja made this revelation. She said that back then, Sunny was still busy working as an adult entertainer and couldn’t dishonour her contract with Penthouse that she had just signed.
Pooja said, “I wanted to cast Sunny Leone in Jism. Before meeting Bipasha (Basu), I had read about Sunny Leone. A publication had written a small snippet on her, it said, ‘people to watch out for,’ and had Sunny Leone’s picture in it. At the time, my office contacted her manager in America and they told us that she had just signed a contract with Penthouse, and so it wouldn’t be possible (for her to be in Jism) because she had a professional commitment. So we forgot about it. So, of course we went to Bipasha, and have no regrets.”
The ‘Zakhm’ actress said that she has no regrets about it at all as Bipasha was stunning and her chemistry with her co-star John was electric.
Pooja then elaborated on how she finally got Sunny Leone to make her Hindi film debut with Jism 2. The actress said that when she shared her decision to approach Sunny for Jism with her business partner, actor Dino Morea, the latter was shocked.
Pooja told Siddharth, “In 2012, when we were making Jism 2, we were discussing whom to cast. We were wondering if we should cast Mallika Sherawat or take Bipasha again or sign a new girl. That’s when it clicked, why don’t we contact Sunny Leone. Dino Morea was my partner, so I called him and asked him if he had heard Sunny’s name and he said ‘no’, so I called him a liar and asked him to Google her and not be shocked. He did that and called me, and said, ‘She is very pretty, very beautiful, but…’ The big question was how can we cast somebody who has been an adult entertainer… Two weeks after that she was in the Bigg Boss house.”
The actress-director said that later, when Sunny participated in the fifth season of Bigg Boss in 2011-2012, she made her father and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt go on the reality show to ask her if she would be interested in doing the film. The latter agreed and thus, got launched in Bollywood with that film.
Speaking about Pooja Bhatt, the actress recently participated in Bigg Boss OTT 2.
