‘Shero’ director Sreejith Vijayan: Despite her team’s dissent, Sunny Leone performed all the action sequences without a body double

Global star Sunny Leone has a large fan base in Kerala. When she first arrived in Kerala’s Kochi in 2017, she brought the city to a standstill. Thousands of her fans flocked to the new mobile phone store in MG Road to catch a glimpse of Sunny Leone, who had landed to inaugurate the store. The ‘Ragini MMS’ actor’s entry into Malayalam cinema was highly anticipated and her appearance in a song sequence in Mammootty starrer ‘Madhura Raja’ has only added fuel to the fire.Although Sunny Leone announced her Mollywood debut with ‘Rangeela’, the shoot was interrupted due to the pandemic and the film on the cards is ‘Shero’. The upcoming multi-lingual film is helmed by Malayalam director Sreejith Vijayan. We reached out to ‘Shero’ director Sreejith Vijayan for a chat. In an exclusive conversation with ETimes, Sreejith Vijayan spilled the beans about the film and also divulged about the risky stunts Sunny Leone performed.
Sunny Leone’s upcoming film ‘Shero’ is simultaneously made in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada, and Telugu languages, and the director disclosed that the shoot is nearing completion.
Speaking about Sunny Leone’s character in the film, Sreejith Vijayan shared, “Sunny Leone’s character Sarah Mike is a US-born woman who has roots back in India. Although she was born and raised in the States, her parents hail from India. Sarah visiting India for a holiday and the events that follow forms the crux of the film.”
‘Shero’ is touted to be a psychological thriller and the director reveals that the film has excited the actress a lot, which led to her signing the project right away. “Sunny Leone was elated when we completed narrating the script. She hardly had any confusion or questions and right away agreed to do the film. It is totally a performance-oriented role and very different from the characters she has done in the past,” he said.

From attending a week’s workshop prior to the shoot to performing daring action sequences by herself, Sreejith Vijayan shares that the actress's commitment towards the film was noteworthy.
“One of the major concerns I had while approaching Sunny for the film was whether she would be willing to do the stunt sequences. Before meeting her, I had made up my mind to use body doubles, in case she isn’t comfortable with doing it herself. So we narrated the script, Sunny said okay and soon her manager asked me if he could have a word with me. And he said, “Sunny ma’am would say that she will perform the action sequences, but please do use a body double. She will dive right in, but we are concerned.” I consoled him and asked him not to worry. The shoot began, and the stunt sequences were lined up for the next days. So, I informed Sunny about the same, and the first thing she said was that she would do the action sequences herself. And her justification for it convinced me a lot. She said that a body double might be able to pull off the action sequences better than her, but if we want a close shot, the body double won’t be able to bring the emotion that the character needs to portray. Despite her team’s dissent, Sunny Leone performed all the action sequences without a body double. And that itself is an introduction to the dedication she does as an actor,” Sreejith Vijayan opened up.

The ‘Shero’ director also added that Sunny Leone’s driving skills helped the team a lot during the shoot, “After a certain point, the film only has action sequences. Those are not fighting sequences, but adventurous portions. Sunny herself drew the car for all the chase sequences.”
The lion’s share of the shoot has been completed and Munnar was its major location.
When asked if Sunny Leone has any Malayalam dialogues in the film, he explained, “Shero is more of a pan-Indian film. We have covered all South languages and Hindi too. And I feel language is no longer a barrier these days.”
The upcoming film has a stellar cast from Malayalam, Tamil, and other languages, but the director chose to stay tight-lipped about it, however, hinted that it would be a box full of surprises, “Let’s wait for the trailer to find out that!”
Meanwhile, ‘Shero’ is backed by Ansari and Ravi Kiran, under the banner IKIGAI Motion Pictures. Manoj Kumar Khatoi has cranked the lens and sensational musician Ghibran is handling the music department. V Saajan is in charge of the edits and Dileep Nath is the production designer.
Sreejith Vijayan signed off on a positive note, hoping that ‘Shero’ would be fortunate enough to get a theatrical release.