In 2012, she made her Bollywood debut in Pooja Bhatt's erotic thriller Jism 2 (2012) and shifted her focus to mainstream acting which was followed up with Jackpot (2013), Ragini MMS 2 (2014), Ek Paheli Leela (2015), Tera Intezaar (2017), and the Malayalam film Madhura Raja in 2019.

Apart from her acting career, she has been part of activism campaigns including the Rock 'n' Roll Los Angeles Half-Marathon to raise money for the American Cancer Society and has also posed for a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) ad campaign with a rescued dog, encouraging pet owners to have their cats and dogs spayed and neutered.

She has also appeared in other magazines including Cheri,[22] Mystique Magazine,[23] High Society, Swank, AVN Online, Leg World, Club International and Lowrider,[24][25] while her online credits include ModFX Models,[26] Suze Randall,[27] Ken Marcus[28] and Mac & Bumble.

[30] That same year, Leone signed a three-year contract with Vivid Entertainment with which she transitioned into hardcore pornography, stating that she would only do lesbian scenes.

She followed this with Sunny Loves Cher, which featured her first on-screen squirting, and The Female Gardner co-starring Mikayla Mendez and Daisy Marie.

[35] That year she underwent breast augmentation,[36] and shot her first movie under the new contract titled Sunny Loves Matt.

In January 2008, Leone revealed that she was no longer exclusive to Erikson, and had done scenes with other actors, including Tommy Gunn, Charles Dera, James Deen[38] and Voodoo.

[42] With her new venture Leone announced her plans to write, direct and create her own brand of adult movies with Vivid Entertainment as her distributor.

[38] Her first independent production, The Dark Side of the Sun, was released in March 2009, and was debuted at the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas.

[43] In June 2009, she held a casting call in Las Vegas for her second independent production titled Sunny Slumber Party,[44] which was released in September 2009.

She leveraged her online popularity by striking deals with firms like PPPcard,[47] AdultPokerParty.com,[48] Brickhouse,[49] Flirt4Free,[50] Totemcash,[51] and Imlive[52] to sell and distribute her content over the Internet and other media.

[58] Doc Johnson launched a pocket pal in 2006 moulded to her vagina,[59] and in 2008 released the Sunny Leone Exciter vibrator.

[75] In addition to filming her scene for Debbie Does Dallas in 2007, Leone was also part of a Showtime documentary of the same name detailing the production of the movie and the personal lives of its stars.

[80] In 2008, Leone announced that she would be starring in a mainstream action adventure movie titled Pirates Blood, which was shot in Oman.

[81] Leone also landed a role in Middle Men, producer Chris Mallick's indie feature about the birth of the online porn industry set for wide theatrical release in 2009.

[84] Leone has made appearances at events such as the 2002 SEMA International Auto Salon, the 2002 Extreme Autofest Pomona and the 2006 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

[citation needed] It was reported that she caused a stir in the larger populace[94] with her Twitter feed gaining 8,000 new followers in just 2 days[95] and Google saying searches for her experienced a "breakout".

[96] There were also complaints lodged with the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting alleging that the Colors TV channel was promoting pornography by having Leone appear on the show; among those who filed are the Indian Artistes and Actors Forum[97] and Anurag Thakur, member of Lok Sabha and head of the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing.

She accepted it, which resulted in Pooja Bhatt's production house, Fish Eye Network and Leone's agent discussing the movie further.

[104] Sunny Leone featured in an item number in the Sanjay Gupta and Ekta Kapoor's 2013 film Shootout at Wadala.

[111] In November 2013, she had confirmed that she would make her Tamil film debut in Vadacurry which released in May 2014 and featured her in a special appearance.

She made her acting debut in the Telugu film industry by appearing in a cameo in Current Theega opposite Manchu Manoj and Rakul Preet Singh where she played a school teacher.

She essayed the role of a film star opposite Ram Kapoor, Evelyn Sharma and Navdeep Chabbra.

The characters are not complicated or unpleasant and exist in a world that veers on the border of Valentine's Land with its floating pink hearts and soft focus lighting.

"[143] In an interview to Press Trust of India, Leone explained that the book was written from the perspective of both men and females, and that while it was for both genders it was mainly intended for women, stating, "I wrote these stories, from what I thought a woman would like to read.

[150] She indicated that Barack Obama would be her choice in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, primarily because she felt he was more business-friendly to the adult industry than his opponent John McCain.

[151] She also released a public service announcement on behalf of the ASACP, urging adult website webmasters to protect their sites from children by having an RTA label on it.

[citation needed] In 2013, Leone posed for a PETA ad campaign, encouraging dog and cat owners to have their pets spayed and neutered.

But she's unlikely to disavow her career path due to religion" and that Leone said "Girls will leave the industry claiming that they found God.

Senior police inspector JK Sawant stated, "We cannot block the website, but will ask the operator to remove objectionable content.