Sunny Leone, the porn star who entered “Bigg Boss 5”, had so far generated eyeballs and TRPs. Now, she’s generated controversy too. Till some time ago, Sunny’s websi-te, which features her porn videos, had a large, un-missable message on the home page that read ‘As seen on “Bigg Boss Season 5″‘, ‘Now watch her strip down and be naughty and see why the world is obsessed with Sunny Leone’.
This usage of the Indian TV show to promote her videos didn’t go down well with the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC), an independent body instituted by the Indian Broadcasters Foundation (IBF). BCCC directed Colors, the channel, to stop the cross-promotion of Leone’s porn videos and sites by December 26.
Votes being asked for on Sunny’s website
Till last week, the home page of Sunny’s website read ‘You can see her on the TV show ” Bigg Boss”‘, along with other pointers like ‘As seen on “Bigg Boss Season 5″‘, ‘Now watch her strip…’ To most, that seemed like Sunny’s participation in the Indian reality show was being used to promote her adult videos. Even though the home page has now been altered and the mention of “Bigg Boss” removed, there are conspicuous links in Hindi, aimed at widening her Hindi-speaking fan base. The new home page now carries a Twitter icon that reads, ‘How does Voting work this week? If there are no public votes…’ – suggesting that her website is still using the show to garner public support.
Don’t use the show to sell porn: BCCC
The BCCC held that by getting Sunny for the show and making her disclose her identity on Indian TV, the showmakers have been cashing in on the fact that Sunny is a part of the adult industry. Ever since she entered the show, viewers, in an attempt to get more information about Sunny online, have been accessing her porn website instead, which bothered the Information and Broadcasting ministry, but made Sunny the most Googled celebrity in India.
Wajahat Habibullah, chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities and a member of BCCC, was quoted in reports as saying, “We all agreed that Sunny Leone has been using “Bigg Boss” to promote pornography which is classified as a criminal activity in India. It may not be criminal in the US, where she comes from, but here, it happens to be so. Therefore, she can’t be allowed to use our television to promote her business. Colors has agreed to comply and report back on steps taken.”
We’ll evict her if she doesn’t comply
A Colors spokesperson responded to our mail with a statement that said, “We did receive a complaint from BCCC regarding participation of Sunny Leone in “Bigg Boss Season 5”, and appeared before BCCC and clarified our position. BCCC agreed with our position that the content on the show is in compliance with self-regulatory guidelines. BCCC also appreciated that there is no evidence to suggest that there is any link between Colors and cross-promotion of “Bigg Boss 5” on Sunny Leone’s sites. However BCCC requested us to use our commercial endeavours to persuade Sunny Leone to not use “Bigg Boss 5” or Colors on her websites, and we assured BCCC of our efforts on the same. In the past, we have persuaded Sunny Leone to not use Colors or “Bigg Boss Season 5” in any form, and now we have decided to write a letter to her informing that in case the references to “Bigg Boss 5” are not removed from her website, we shall immediately terminate her contract and evict her from the “Bigg Boss House”.” BCCC chairperson Justice AP Shah could not be reached for comment.
How she rode the Bigg search wave
Talk about cross-promotion – Sunny Leone became the most searched ‘item’ in India thanks to “Bigg Boss”! In a 30-day period between November and December, Sunny beat Bollywood babes Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to become India’s most Googled celebrity. Fans searched for her five times more often than for Katrina, twice as often as for Aishwarya and nine times more often than for Bebo.
According to Google Trends, Noida clocked up the most number of searches, downloading photos and videos, followed by the cities Bhubaneswar, Ludhiana and Bhopal.
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