Bombay Sapphire
Author: Chris Mooney
Magazine: Arena (UK), issue February 2009
“At first I thought it was all jokes. Why would Danny Boyle come to India to shoot a film in the first place, and then audition me?” Freida Pinto is sitting with Arena in a freezing Shoreditch flad on a dark Friday night, having just posed for the fine pictures you see on these pages, and is clearly having a hard time coming to terms with her new status as a ‘hot young actress’.
For her first acting job of any type, this 24-year-old Mumbai model grabbed the role of the heroine in easily one of the best films of the year: Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, a barnstorming return to form for the director. Alongside Dev Patel (the geeky Indian guy from Skins), she plays Latika, an abandoned slum orphan turned gangster’s moll who dominates every available second of screen time – and this from someone whose only previous on-screen experience was presenting a satellite-TV travel show.
So after gently criticising Arena’s tea-making skills over some rather fine lapsang souchong (“You should really brew it a bit, actually, in the pot. My mum taught me that”), she regales us with the story of how it all happened in the articulate, mannered tones familiar to anyone who has spent any time in Mumbai society. It’s a fine way to spend an evening.
“I was so lucky. It’s an all-Indian cast, Danny Boyle wanted people who had no acting experience or training. He wanted to see everyone and anyone. So I auditioned for one scene where Latika meets Dev’s character, Jamal, again for the first time in years and makes him go away – what a bitch – and I just thought, well, I’ve given it my best shot. For six months I continued to audition. So rigorous. It was like going to acting school, and I was never sure what was happening. And then I got the call that said, ‘You are Latika, so get ready!’ The best moment ever.”
It was not only a break that’ll have all aspiring actors reading this gnawing their gums in naked envy; it was also a chance to work with someone who’s clearly a bit of a hero for her. “I used to adore Danny Boyle’s films, truly. I did a film course at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai. We studied Trainspotting – yes, I did understand the accents, thank you! I loved The Beach, and I also watched Sunshine and Millions. He can do anything: a horror flick, a children’s film, a sci-fi flick, anything. Honestly, if Slumdog Millionaire was to be described in Danny Boyle terms, it would be a bit of Trainspotting, the romance of A Life Less Ordinary and the tension of 28 Days Later, all bundled together into this beautifully written, dynamic movie. And, of course, there’s a wonderful toilet scene as well that’s very Danny [where the young Jamal crawls through a slum sewer to meet his hero, a Bollywood actor, dripping with fresh turd].”
Aside from her evident stunning looks, self-possession and the rare ability among model-turned-actresses to discuss Stanley Kubrick films for hours to end, you can’t help but feel that even her name Freida Pinto itself was destined to be seen on film posters. “It’s an old Portuguese name from Mangalore [in southern India], where I’m originally from. I like it, too.”
So, does Bollywood fame now beckon?
“Well, I would love to work there, I really would,” she says. “I grew up watching those films like a crazy kid. Indian cinema is becoming more meaningful now. It’s not just about fighting and deceit, the good and the bad; there is more grey now. And I think this will definitely help.”
Is there a Bollywood film that she could recommend to Arena readers, one that Western viewers can watch and enjoy? “OK, write this down. It’s called Lagaan, and it’s about British and Indian cricket teams during the British Raj. It’s all about fight over lower taxes in a time of famine. Whoever wins gets the lower taxes. You’ll love it. You know, there’s a lot of similarities between British and Indian culture. On a day when there are many important things happening in business and crime, all our headlines will be about cricket. Silly things like the colour of their jerseys. Just silly.”
