Nxg

SPOTLIGHT Freida Pinto had a dream and now she’s living it. This desi girl now rules the Hollywood box office and red carpet with equal élan. AMINA SAMREEN SALAHUDDIN chats up the stylish star.

It took a “Slumdog Millionnaire” for this demure diva to get noticed. Inarguably one of the best dressed celebrities, she stands out for her ensemble that she wears for the red carpet. Confident and poised, she speaks her mind on television shows. Frieda Pinto is on a roll in La La land signing blockbusters, moving into a to-die-for mansion in Santa Monica and more. NXg catches up with the “Immortals” star.

You play the Greek goddess Phaedra in your recent release “Immortals”.

“Immortals” is Tarsem’s take on the already been-there-done-that Greek epic. I play Phaedra who is a soothsayer, the Oracle priestess. Thus, when I thought of Phaedra, I just thought of the word ‘Zen’. My preparation for playing Phaedra was quite simple. I just meditated and tried to be as calm and composed as possible throughout the length of the filming because Tarsem wanted a lot of stillness and, I guess, calm in her performance.

Does Phaedra share any character traits with the real Freida?

Freida really doesn’t share any character traits with Phaedra because the two of them are set in completely different time zones all together. I’d love to have her superpower. She can predict what the future holds which is great but at the same time it can be so much of a torment, every time knowing what you can possibly see in the future. As Freida, since I don’t have such power I will never know what the future holds but can just hope that it’s all the best. So really they do not have anything in common.

Everybody wants to see you do a Bollywood film. Will you ever do one?

“Slumdog Millionnaire” is the first film that I did and it’s an Indian film. It is just a matter of perception. The film captured Mumbai beautifully and was a tribute to the city. Besides, the crew and actors were all Indian, so how can you not call it an Indian film? Even outside of India, people refer to it as an Indian film. I have worked with Tarsem Singh for “Immortals”, a brilliant Indian director who has made Hollywood blockbusters. Not just that, one of my next releases “Trishna”, directed by Michael Winterbottom and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap is an Indian story shot completely in India.

Ever since you worked with Dev in “Slumdog Millionaire”, everyone now wants to see you guys together. Is there any film in the offing?

Well, we’ll just have to wait and watch what comes our way.

As an Indian who has made a mark internationally, what do you think of your journey?

The kind of films I was lucky enough to be part of were a good blend of independent cinema as well as big budget films and that has made it a very enjoyable journey for me. If I was stuck doing a typical kind of cinema, I would have probably started getting bored of it. So it’s a blessing to be able to do an epic large format drama like “Immortals” and follow it up with a film like “Trishna” or “Black Gold”. So for me, it’s been a great balance. The journey in that sense has been an amazing learning and it has taught me to be as flexible and versatile at every point as possible.

What has been your experience in Hollywood and the glam world in general?

It is a bit of a whirlwind ride, and it’s amazing what has happened so far. I think it has taken me almost a year-and-a-half to figure out what “Slumdog…” was all about. It just happened so fast to someone who had never seen a red carpet before. I’ve come to terms that this is what I’ve always chosen for myself, and now that I have it, I have to make sure that I work hard to grow. So instead of thinking of it as a dream, let’s just embrace it and make the most of it instead of constantly living in it and saying “my life’s a dream!”
Instead of thinking of it as a dream, let’s just embrace it and make the most of it instead of constantly living in it and saying “my life’s a dream!”

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