Both Aquamarine. Rings, Curio Cottage
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Lace dress, Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane. Shoes, Anthony Vaccarello. Earrings, cuff; both Aquamarine. Rings, Curio Cottage 364 ANTASTIC MISS FREIDA Five years after her luminous debut propelled her on to the world stage, FREIDA PINTO is everywhere and doing everything at once, finds ANINDITA GHOSE Photographed by BHARAT SIKKA Styled by ANAITA SHROFF ADAJANIA tants and the hair and make-up artists has made the biggest impression on have taken their positions, this is when her will always be Danny Boyle. “He Pinto’s magic really begins. The actor, gave me the beginning of what I have who will celebrate her 29th birthday now,” she says earnestly. “You’ve got this month, is now sexier than ever be- to feel so proud of being part of a film fore. Her petite frame ripples with that altered the Goodness Gracious Me yoga curves acquired from sessions concept of India that people had. Peo- with the California-based Jennifer ple don’t like me saying this, but Slum- Perry (who Pinto calls her “soul dog did open a lot of doors.” hat is the esti- mate”). More than anything, it’s the “I sometimes wish I had the experi- mated time of arrival for the cats?” the self-assuredness she exudes as she ence I have now to put into Slumdog,” production manager asks anxiously moves on the studio floor. Feline, fero- she adds. “But I wouldn’t take any of into her cell phone. cious and mysterious—her “entire that back. I was untainted and that Two hawks and a horse are already Wikipedia page is a lie”—she’s a veri- translated on screen to the raw and in- Win the studio. The clothes racks are table femme fatale. nocent Latika,” she says, recalling that weighed down by all manner of dark Pinto has appeared in six movies when she got the BAFTA nomination ensembles—a Roberto Cavalli dress, a since her debut, and another two are in for Best Supporting Actress, Boyle Chanel jacket, a Gareth Pugh coat, post-production. During this time, she wrote her a long email on why she de- amongst others—and photographer has worked with an All-Star roster of served it. It will always be her most Bharat Sikka is fretting over his lights. directors, travelled to Sierra Leone and significant romance with cinema. Amidst the neighing and the screech- Ethiopia as global ambassador for Pinto’s breakthrough might have ing, and a good 15 minutes ahead of Plan’s ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign, been fortunate happenstance, but she her call time, arrives Freida Pinto. had an audience with the UN General has directed the course of her career Even as she slips out of her skinny Secretary, filmed under trying circum- since, successfully alternating between jeans and ankle boots to be made up stances at the West Bank, made it to edgier fare and big-budget blockbust- Her biggest success has been to avoid the stereotype of the “token Indian girl” and bag roles beyond her ethnicity in Hollywood for Vogue’s dark, outlandish sixth-an- the front rows of New York, Paris and ers, between Hollywood and British niversary cover shoot, she has an an- London fashion weeks and kissed Su- cinema. And though her most ac- swer for everything. You wouldn’t perman (Henry Cavill to mortals). claimed performance has been that of guess she’s flown in to Mumbai from So much has changed. And Pinto’s a Rajasthani village girl in Michael Los Angeles earlier that morning if you managers want to draw focus to that. Winterbottom’s Trishna (2011), her heard her. Sikka wants her to get on Her publicist in India is aggressively biggest success has been to avoid the the horse? She can do it. Her nails need against me interviewing anyone relat- stereotype of the “token Indian girl”. to be painted black? She knows just ed to Slumdog, including Pinto’s boy- She has managed to bag roles beyond the right matte shade; a baffled nail friend Dev Patel, who she started dat- her ethnicity in Hollywood—never- artist is told the name and number. ing while filming the movie. Because mind that Tarsem Singh fondly calls Four and a half years ago, Vogue put “Freida’s consciously moved forward her his Brown Pakora. on its cover a 24-year-old Pinto, from Slumdog.” In Julian Schnabel’s Miral (2010), freshly-minted from the success of A week later, I’m having lunch with she plays a young Palestinian woman Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Pinto at a Mediterranean bistro in entangled in the Israeli-Palestine con- She was a shiny debutante over- Bandra—a place she’s picked on the flict. In Immortals (2011), Singh’s ex- whelmed by the paparazzi stalking her suggestion of her TV producer sister, travagant visual orgy, she plays the every move; awed by things like “get- Sharon. She orders rice-crusted fish virgin oracle Phaedra of Greek mythol- ting handbags from Tod’s, Bulgari and kebabs, confessing a debilitating weak- ogy. In Desert Dancer, which is set to Dior—all in one day.” ness for all kinds of seafood owing to release in 2014, she is an Iranian danc- But Pinto is an ingénue no more. her Mangalorean Catholic roots. er. Pinto has played the racial ambigu- Her public appearances no longer in- “There’s a lavish banquet laid out for ity card well. “My agent laughs about volve dancing to ‘Jai ho’ on TV, which me at home every time I come to Mum- it. She says ‘Freida’s chasing all the she did good-naturedly for the better bai…and it always involves jackfruit, White Girl roles’ and that is what I’m part of 2009. “After one year of doing fish curry and rice.” doing most of the time. I’m chasing [it] on every live television show you go On her part, Pinto betrays no desire roles that aren’t written for me any ‘screw you! I’m not doing it one more to smooth over her past. She’s worked which way.” Part of the strategy to time’,” she laughs. with Woody Allen and has just wrapped avoid being typecast as Hollywood eye- At the shoot, when the music washes up filming for Knight Of Cups with candy includes making a foray in Indi- over and the light boys and prop assis- Terrence Malick, but the director who an films. It was recently reported> 366 Metallic cut-out crêpe dress, Burberry Prorsum. Ring, Aquamarine. ‘Dome’ ring, Manish Arora - Amrapali Collection ‘Fleur Ramage’ dress, DSquared2. Shoes, Anthony Vaccarello. Cuff (on left arm), cuff (on right wrist); both Aquamarine. Cuffs (on left wrist), Roberto Cavalli 368 Silk-mousseline and rhinestone-sequin dress, Roberto Cavalli. Double- breasted wool coat, Dior. Diamonds set in 18K gold earrings, Moksh Dress, Vivienne Westwood Gold Label. Shoes, Anthony Vaccarello. Metal cuff, ring, metal cuff (worn on ankle), bracelet (worn on ankle); all Aquamarine. ‘Dome’ ring, Manish Arora - Amrapali Collection 370 Lace top, python-skin peplum jacket; both Gucci. Silk-cotton faille bustle skirt, Michael Kors. Earrings, bangle; both Aquamarine. Choker, Manish Arora - Amrapali Collection. Skull and bead necklace, House Of Chic. Stone bracelet, Curio Cottage that NH10, a woman-oriented action utes—is being asked why she doesn’t to London. Or we go on holiday. We’ve film planned as her Bollywood debut, wear the sari on the red carpet. “I am reached a stage where we don’t really has fallen through. Previously accused Indian; I don’t need to wear a sari to need to explain too much…we just of “shunning Bollywood” by the Indi- promote Indianness. A sari is not more know when we’ve been apart for too an media, these days she takes great Indian than my soul. I have no pa- long and need to spend time together,” pains to explain where she stands. tience for people who are narrow- she says. But it is difficult, she admits. Speaking at the India Today Conclave minded…just be a global citizen and be “His [colleagues on the TV show] in Delhi in March, she said that while proud of where you come from.” Newsroom think I’m mythical. I keep her sensibilities didn’t match the kind The first time she did an interna- missing the premieres and I’ve never of cinema being made in Bollywood tional film festival in London, she wore been able to visit him on set, so they earlier, now things are quite different. an Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla sari. ask him, ‘You’re sure you’re dating “I saw The Lunchbox recently and “But not too many people remember her, right?’” she laughs. I’m quite amazed by the fact that peo- that because so much has happened There is the Freida Pinto who gush- ple [in India] are becoming more since.” She has worn Indian designers; es over her fangirl moment with Leon- broad-minded with cinema. It takes she lists Anamika Khanna, James Fer- ardo DiCaprio (we don’t blame her, someone like Kiran Rao to promote a reira, Sanchita Ajjampur, and Rohit really) and the Freida Pinto who is film like Ship Of Theseus,” she says. Gandhi and Rahul Khanna among frighteningly serious. The one that fol- What would she really like to do? “I’d those she supports. “I don’t get a lows half a dozen activist groups on love to do a comedy. At this point, chance to wear too many Indian de- Twitter and posts about organ dona- that’s what people haven’t seen me do.