Karenjit Kaur – The Untold Story Review: An unflinching saga of Guts, Choices and REVOLT! My Verdict – That’s how a BIOPIC is made! HATS OFF 4 out of 5 stars! It is sometimes said that in the smiling face of every film star, something awful can be glimpsed if you look enough. Something in the glaze of the eyes, or the set of the teeth – the suppressed memory of that entry fee paid at the beginning of a movie career: the casting couch, the indecent proposal, humiliation or nauseating debasement when the star that is now was a powerless youth long ago. That came back to me watching this super interesting, heartfelt study of Karenjit Kaur who as Sunny Leone is one of the leading stars of Bollywood today! The web series on ZEE5 is one of a kind in its treatment and dishing out of the drama. It starts off with a seemingly nervous Sunny on the sets of her first skinemax movie. When the director says “Robes Off please” we see a hesitant Karenjit doing what she knows she has to! She doesn’t let the hesitation take the better of her! Slick editing and a gripping treatment sucks you into the story. You just can’t get rid of the inquisitiveness that envelopes you as the non-linear narrative gives you vivid flashes into the life of a teenage Karenjit who sings Gurbani at the Gurudwara with her beautiful voice. You almost start wondering, what could have happened to this coy little girl? How did she become so bold and brazen that taking off her clothes in front of the camera wasn’t much big of a deal for her? ! The first five episodes gives the audiences the understanding of her upbringing, her familial background and the moulding of her mind to have ideologies she stands by to this very day! Rysa Sujania who plays the young Karenjit is impressive with her rabbit locks, her meet in the middle eyebrows or her anglicised Hindi – all of which are to the point. In the scene where she is bullied by her class mates for having unshaved legs – the embarrassment on her countenance is palpable or when the ‘Asian’ girl who is seeking acceptance from her peers gets solace in one of her classmates, she doesn’t hold back and is experiencing her first kiss gets reprimanded from her dad; seething with anger that stems from his deep rooted Indian values – the terrified look on her face makes us feel sorry for her. Bijay Jasjit Anand as Sunny’s dad is commendable. He instinctively steps into the character of a man who is pretty materialistic and wants to migrate from Canada to LA but at the same time is pretty conservative and bigoted in his outlooks. On the other hand, Grusha Singh who plays Sunny’s mother makes her character plausible with her Punjabi accent. She does a swell job as the overtly strict and closeted alcoholic mom who tries her best to repress her daughter’s independent mindset. Sunny’s brother played by Karamvir Lamba is at once funny and at once loveable and concerned! He is the confidante in whom Sunny shares all her deep dark secrets. He is a guy of today, pretty open-minded, well-informed and trusting! The young man is distraught when his sister confides in him about her first ‘skinemax’ movie offer. Visibly concerned about her, he rigidly instructs her to give him the names, numbers and addresses of everyone she would be working with but again, at the same time we also see him unflinchingly trading the pictures of her for cash! – his justification – “Life in LA is too hard!” Raj Arjun plays the TV journalist who hates Sunny for what she is and leaves no stone unturned to humiliate her on national television. This episode is taken from the Leone’s life when she was asked awful questions on the CNN IBN talk show titled ‘The Hotseat’ which was hosted by Bhupendra Chaubey. In the web series the title of the talk show has been altered, it’s called ‘The Tough Talks’ and Bhupendra’s name has been changed to Anupam but his surname has been retained for obvious reasons! Sunny Leone is mind blowing! Her body language speaks volumes, her eyes speak volumes! She makes sure, she is there in every scene with her mind, body, and soul! She looks b-e-a-utiful in every shot! Her confidence in front of the camera seems to have increased manifold. The very first scene when the director calls out her, “the young lady with the black tresses, why don’t you step up to the mark?” the nervousness in her demeanor is evident. The poise with which she answers Anupam’s questions in the web series catapults her into a league of her own! When Anupam says “There’s not much difference between a prostitute and a pornstar,” she readily answers “there’s one thing common though – GUTS.” She is not any other run-of-the-mill Bollywood actress! She has carved a niche of her own, on her own terms! She is sharp, she is sassy, she is intelligent and she does have ‘nerves of steel’! All in all, a captivating story without many cinematic liberties at play. Ladies and gentlemen, Karenjit Kaur – The Untold Story is an example of how biopics should be made! It is as raw as can be. The interplay of the sub-conscious which conjures up storms within and then makes way for their juxtaposition with the real circumstances that ultimately wreaks havoc on lives is what this web-series is all about. It is about the choices one makes, it is a tale that transcends ideas of right and wrong. It is a tale of grit, nerve and revolution! And finally, it is the story of a woman who is beautiful, in every way a woman can be!<doc-sep>MUMBAI: ZEE5, India’s largest and most comprehensive digital entertainment platform for language content, is all set to make this week even more exciting for you! On the day that the platform launches their biggest show – Karenjit Kaur – the untold story of Sunny Leone – since its launch, ZEE5 has rolled out a limited time period offer for subscribers – monthly subscription at Rs 99 for 2 months where you save Rs.99 and annual subscription at Rs 499 for 1 year where you save Rs.500 The OTT platform from the ZEE store works on a subscription based model, where subscribers can choose between monthly, 3 months’, 6months’ or annual subscription. ZEE5 India buisness head Manish Agarwal commented, “It is a very special day for us – not only are we launching our most-awaited original web-series, but we are also rolling out this limited time period exciting offer. We believe this will give our audience one more definite reason for clicking the download button. Given our extensive regional language portfolio – a combination of our originals and syndicated content – we have received a lot of interest from across the country in the past six months. And, as we continue to improve on the content as well as path-breaking technology that the platform offers, we believe this will be one more reason for viewers to explore our platform. The next few months will see our team rolling out more interesting developments via the platform itself to ensure the viewers never have a day without entertainment with us around.” ZEE5 has also extended a special gift to all the earlier users of the ZEE5 Premium club via 1 month & 3 months pack completely free of cost as a gesture of appreciation! ZEE5 has an extensive repertoire of content spanning television series – both from our own bouquet of channels as well as international shows in Turkish, Korean, Japanese, Pakistani, Spanish and English languages; cinema – old classics to latest blockbusters; chartbusting music from around the world; the range of multi-lingual original content in languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. The offer will be valid till 15th August only. So, download now to avail the exciting offer and enjoy over 1,00,000+ hours of curated content across the language of your choice. With over 3500 films, 500+ TV shows, 4000+ music videos, 35+ theatre plays and 90+ LIVE TV Channels across 12 languages, ZEE5 truly presents a blend of unrivalled content offering for its viewers across the nation and worldwide. With ZEE5, the global content of Zindagi as a brand, which was widely appreciated across the country, has also been brought back for its loyal viewers. ZEE5 has partnered with the best in the business to bring viewers a seamless viewing experience. Some of the partners include Axinom for Content Management System, Think Design that created the design language of UI/UX, Tatas that breathed life in the design and bought it to alive in the form of Web and App. The platform’s CDN is managed by Akamai, Tata CDN and AWS Cloudfront. A unique feature in this adaptive experience is that Conviva, one of the leading players globally, directs viewers to one of the best CDN service provider based on the quality of their service in your location at that moment ensuring the viewers never have to compromise on video quality. ZEE5’s servers are hosted on Microsoft Azure and AWS cloud thereby ensuring scalability and reliability of the service. Availability: The ZEE5 App can be downloaded from Google Play Store http://bit.ly/zee5 and iOS App Store http://bit.ly/zee5ios. Also available at www.zee5.com, as a Progressive Web App (PWA), and on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick. ZEE5 also supports Chromecast. Pricing: Freemium pricing model with both free and paid premium content (including Originals) to cater to a mix of audiences. Viewers who subscribe to the ZEE5 subscription pack will get access to the entire library of content at a special offer price of INR 99 per month.<doc-sep>Actor Sunny Leone is ready to tell her story through Karenjit Kaur: The Untold Story of Sunny Leone despite the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) having issues with the usage of ‘Kaur’ in the title of the web series. According to a report, SGPC have objected to the use of ‘Kaur’ in the title of the film which will premiere on Zee5 on July 16. Diljit Singh Bedi, SGPC’s additional secretary and spokesperson, had told Times of India that the usage would hurt Sikh sentiments as Sunny did not follow the teachings of the Sikh gurus. Hence, she had no right to use the title “Kaur”. The next chapter of my life starts in a few days! Are you ready to take the journey with me through my eyes! #guiltyofdoingitmyway @ZEE5India @namahpictures @freshlimefilms @adidatt #karenjitkaur pic.twitter.com/dweWBwOXa6 — Sunny Leone (@SunnyLeone) July 14, 2018 Sunny refused to comment on it, tweeting on Saturday: “The next chapter of my life starts in a few days! Are you ready to take the journey with me through my eyes? #guiltyofdoingitmyway @ZEE5India @namahpictures @freshlimefilms @adidatt #karenjitkaur.” The former adult film actor shot to fame in India when she entered the Bigg Boss house as a contestant in 2011. She made her Bollywood debut with Jism 2 in 2012. She is now married to Daniel Weber and the couple has three children. They adopted a child, Nisha in 2017 and in March 2018, they extended their family by including two more children -- sons Noah and Asher -- via surrogacy. Sunny had earlier told IANS: “Initially, my answer (to a show on her life) was that I wasn’t sure. But once I started hearing about what the director and the production house wanted, I started having an interest in it.” On what the audience should expect from the show, the Indo-Canadian talent had said: “The unexpected. This is a part of my life story and not necessarily the journey you are expecting to see.” Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10:ht-tv_listing-desktop<doc-sep>
Fans of Sunny Leone, who have always been curious about her journey and her life behind the glamour, are in for a treat as Leone’s biopic ‘Karenjit Kaur: The Untold Story Of Sunny Leone’ has premiered today on Zee5. Taking to her Twitter page, Leone gushed, “#KarenjitKaurOnZEE5 TODAY !!!!!! JULY 16th.... BOOM !!!!!! #GuiltyofDoingItmyWay ... LOVE YOU ALL and THANK YOU!!!!!! !” Sunny’s husband Daniel Weber too took to Twitter to write, “Watch what the entire world is talking about !!! @SunnyLeone #KarenjitKaur #GuiltyofDoingItmyWay @ZEE5India.” The 37-year-old had earlier said in an interview with ANI that she has tried to bare it all in the upcoming web series and is unsure how everyone will react to it. "I have tried to be as honest as I could be. And that's why I am scared what will people think or say because they'll get to see the good, the bad, the ugly,' she said. "In the biopic, everyone will get to see Karenjit Kaur Vohra. Karenjit is the real me. Sunny Leone is just a brand that I created. What people see in a song or a film or maybe a photoshoot, it's just a persona," she added. Director Aditya Datt was all smiles as he said, “Till a day ago, I was quite anxious and was undergoing the same nervousness that any filmmaker experiences on a Thursday. However, when the show went online on Zee5, the feeling was more of that of a free-fall. My family members and friends are my biggest critics as they have always been hard on my work. However, when it comes down to them loving it, that’s a sign of gratification for me.” Directed by Aditya Datt, who had helmed hit thriller ‘Table No. 21’ starring Paresh Rawal, ‘Karenjit Kaur: The Untold Story Of Sunny Leone’ traces her journey from a ‘girl-next-door’ to a Penthouse Pet to a Bollywood celebrity and going by the trailer of the web series, the biopic is going to be bold, explosive, entertaining and touching. The web series is also unique for the simple reason that Sunny will play herself in the biopic, which is something that has never happened before.