UNB, Dhaka :
Popular Bollywood actress Karenjit Kaur Weber, more popularly known by her stage name Sunny Leone, arrived in Dhaka on Saturday afternoon.
Posting a photo across her social media platforms from the airport, Leone wrote: “So happy to be in this beautiful country!”
Later she posted another picture on her Instagram, writing: “Time to have some fun with family in Dhaka!” and tagged Gaan Bangla television’s Managing Director and CEO Kaushik Hossain Taposh on the post.
It is being speculated that Sunny Leone came to Dhaka to take part in a family event, most likely a wedding, alongside some other Indian artists. Social media posts throughout the day claimed sightings of Nargis Fakhri, Raima Sen, Mimi Chakraborty, besides Leone.
Bollywood stars offer a service whereby they can be booked through their agents or management companies to attend even total strangers’ weddings, in return for a fee of course. This fee varies, but costs less than it would to hire them as performing artists, e.g. to do a song and dance routine. It has proven to be quite lucrative due to its immense popularity among India’s burgeoning nouveau riche in the post-1991 era, and quite a few failed/out-of-work actors and actresses have been known to manage pretty decent incomes from this kind of ‘work’.
Given the almost identical obsession with big, brash weddings, and of course Bollywood itself in neighbouring Bangladesh, it was always just a matter of time before the trend made its way here. And following the explosion in the number of high net worth individuals witnessed in the country in recent years, it would now seem to be well and truly here.
Sunny Leone was recently denied a work permit to act in the Shamim Ahamed Roni directed Bangladeshi film “Soldier,” produced by Selim Khan.
The production company ‘Chairman Film Syndicate’ applied for the work permit, apparently in accordance with the rules.
On March 2, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting allowed Sunny Leone and 10 other Indian artists to come to Bangladesh to participate in the film.
However Leone’s work permit got cancelled, according to a gazette issued on March 9.
The other Indian artistes however, were permitted to work for the film from March 5 to September 4 under certain conditions.
Leone is scheduled to leave Bangladesh later this week.
