No Sunny for Bengaluru

There is no denying that Sunny Leone is immensely popular, and not only because of her former adult star status, but as a Bollywood star, who has also made her mark in Sandalwood with two special numbers, Kamakshi (Luv U Alia) and Sesamma (DK). This is exactly what the Bengaluru-based event firm was tapping into when Sunny was listed as the performer for the New Year bash at a north Bengaluru venue.
Huge hoardings announcing the event have been dotting the city scape.But with just days to go for the show, it appears to have been derailed, after members of the fringe group, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Yuva Sene, opposed it. The Vedike members stated that her performance would be against “our culture” and threatened to commit mass suicide lest she goes ahead with the show.
Bowing to pressure from the protesters, the government has refused approval to conduct the event. “We have denied permission fearing law and order problems in the wake of protests by pro-Kannada outfits and keeping in view the directions of the Karnataka High Court in a molestation case reported on MG Road last New Year's Eve,” Home Minister R Ramalinga Reddy was quoted as saying.
No Sunny, no event: Organizer
Harish Mysore, MD of the firm, is awaiting the ruling in the petition he has filed in the Karnataka High Court in this regard today. “As of now, Sunny has now said that due to the failure of providing police security in Bengaluru, in the interest of guests, she will not come,” he says. Harish adds, “We are waiting the court order today and, if it is in our favour, we will attempt to convince her to perform at our event. This is my first event and I have invested my own money into it. If the show doesn’t go ahead, I will also have to cancel it altogether and suffer huge losses,” he says and adds, “I am a Kannadiga, my culture is not such that it will be spoilt by Sunny Leone performing for half an hour. We have to look beyond the fact that she used to be an adult star. She is an accepted artiste in Bollywood and several other film industries, including Sandalwood. She was scheduled to have three entries during the entire show, one to her Bollywood numbers, another to her Kannada songs and finally, for the New Year countdown.”
In the aftermath of the opposition, Harish claims that he has been trying to meet Ramalinga Reddy to sort out the issue. “I was finally told by his secretary that I should speak to the Commissioner of Police, which I have been unable to do so far, as I have not got an appointment. I did, however, speak to the jurisdictional DCP Girish S, who gave me a notice with some 18-19 queries regarding the event and all the permissions. Herein lies the issue. Like all event organizers, I applied for necessary permissions as early as December 1, and then went ahead with booking artistes. Normally, your paperwork comes through in the week before the event and the process is such that you get all clearances only after the police gives you an OK. Now, if they refuse to give us permission, how can they expect us to have clearance from Excise, BBMP, PWD and all other departments? I will respond to the notice, but I also await the court order,” he says.
Permission has been rejected: DCP
Girish S, DCP - North East, Bengaluru City Police, says, “This event has been verbally rejected. However, we have asked for clarifications from the organizers, based on information that is missing from their application. The organizers haven’t responded yet, including about how many tickets they plan to sell, names of the other performing celebrities, permissions from BBMP and PWD, whether they have ambulance and fire services in place, etc. They have stated that they have massive parking space around the arena, which we are unsure about. The fact that they have someone like Sunny Leone as the main act means that they need a lot of security. It is New Year’s Eve and we have revelry everywhere. We cannot deploy extra policemen at the venue. In fact, cops from my jurisdiction will man the Brigade Road-MG Road area in the wake of last year’s incident. If the organizers decide to not bring Sunny to the event, we might consider giving them permissions if the rest of the clarifications are answered.”
No issues with other New year events: Event managers
Richard Mathew, an event organizer in Bengaluru, says that this episode is an exception to Bengaluru’s otherwise welcoming spirit. “We’ve had a lot of international DJs, which include women, come down for events, including for New Year’s Eve bashes. The only question asked is whether they have all the right visa formalities in place and if we are following all the legalities. We also ensure we never hurt anyone’s sentiments in these events. But, all said, Sunny Leone is a celebrity at a different level. Though, she was coming to the city just as a performer. Maybe, it was a hasty decision, since she was to dance to a Kannada number at the event. Bengaluru is traditionally a welcoming venue and we have encouraged every artiste or concept, sometimes even before the rest of the country experiences it. We need to remember this,” says Richard.
Will Brand Bengaluru take a hit?
Oum Pradutt, another event organizer, says that the cancellation of the Sunny Leone event will not really affect the brand value of the city. “I don’t think Brand Bengaluru will be affected. This is just an event that some individuals have expressed their concern about. She, in fact, is just another artiste who was supposed to perform at an event, which is like any other show. Celebrities keep travelling for such events across the globe to perform and this is one of those. The brand value of the city will not be affected. It will only ensure that people will remain in the news for a while, like the artiste concerned and the protesters,” says Oum.
Brand strategy specialist Harish Bijoor, however, begs to differ. “I appreciate the fact that Bengaluru Police has not given permission to the event in the backdrop of what happened last year. Any police department will be on the back foot, because their mandate is to help people usher in New Year peacefully. But when we look at how this impacts Brand Bengaluru, we have to remember that this is a progressive, all-embracing city. When an artiste is not allowed to perform for who he/she is, it affects this progressive avatar.
Sunny Leone comes with baggage of the past and eminent talent of the present. We are almost at the cusp of 2018, and we cannot be judging artistes based on this baggage of the past. That is not progressive; it is regressive. My belief is that Bengaluru offers the most secular environment for progressive writers and artistes and while we don’t want the tag of city of gropers, as we did after NY 2017, we cannot be seen as regressive either,” he says.