Freida Pinto

Some Lesser Known Facts About Freida Pinto

• Does Freida Pinto drink alcohol?: Yes
  

• She was born into a middle-class Mangalorean family in Mumbai.

• She wanted to become an actress since her childhood, and after watching the victory of Sushmita Sen in the Miss Universe 1994, she made a firm decision about it.

• She is a trained Salsa and Indian Classical dancer. During her college time, she partook in several amateur theatres. She first wanted to complete her graduation before making a career in modelling and acting.

• Although she always wanted to make a career in the acting field, she wasn’t sure which path to follow on to achieve her dreams until she watched the film “Monster” in 2003. She said in an interview that
  

  “I guess it was when I watched Monster … I pretty much knew. I had to find a way. I had to do something like that, something completely transformational.”

• In 2005, after completing her graduation, she joined Elite Model Management India and began her modelling career. She worked with this management for almost two and a half years. She was featured in various TV endorsements for different products including Skoda, Airtel, Vodafone India, Wrigley’s Chewing Gum, Visa, De Beers, and eBay. Simultaneously, she started giving auditions for TV shows and movies.

• Later, she got selected to host an international travel show “Full Circle” from 2006 to 2008; which was aired on Zee International Asia Pacific. She travelled all around the world including Fiji, Afghanistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries during that time.

• During the initial years of her struggle, she had to give hundreds of auditions for both Hollywood and Bollywood productions but didn’t get any positive response.

• In 2007, she got selected by her modelling agency along with the other six models to audition for the female lead in Slumdog Millionaire (2008); a movie by Danny Boyle. Eventually, after six months of extensive auditions, she got selected for the film opposite Dev Patel.
  

• In December 2007, after winning the role of Latika for Slumdog Millionaire, she got engaged to her boyfriend Rohan Antao in Goa. But, the couple got separated in 2009 after the success of the film. In an interview, she said
  

  “I was engaged to actor Rohan Antao, but we broke up at the end of last year. Things happen and you have to learn to deal with them.”

• Pinto revealed on the sets of ‘Koffee with Karan’ that she had auditioned for the role of one of the hockey players in the film ‘Chak De! India,’ but she couldn’t do it as the shooting for her film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was going on at the same time.

• Freida revealed during an interview that she had been rejected for the Indian commercials many times as the makers felt that she did not look Indian.

• In 2009, Freida was featured in People Magazine’s “Most Beautiful People List” and “World’s Best Dressed Women List.”

• In the same year, she was included in Vogue’s list of the “Top Ten Most Stylish Women.”

• During an interview, Freida confessed that she didn’t like to look at herself in the mirror. She said,
  

  It’s not necessarily the way I see myself. In fact, I don’t even like to look at myself in the mirror. But I’m aware of the perception and I always say that if it’s because of that one line in ‘Slumdog…’ where Latika is described as ‘the most beautiful girl in the world’, then I have to do everything that I can to change that perception.”

• Subsequently, she signed up for two art-house productions. In 2010, she acted in “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” a comedy-drama by Woody Allen. In this project, she worked with Josh Brolin, Anupam Kher, Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones, Anna Friel, and others. Then, she starred in the film “Miral” (2010) but didn’t get a good response for her role.

• In 2011, she gave four releases including ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘Trishna’. After this, she appeared in a music video ‘Gorilla’ in 2013 for Bruno Mars. She was condemned by the Indian media for featuring in this video.

• In the same year, she appeared in a documentary film ‘Girl Rising.’ In 2014, she again made her cinematic appearance, after a hiatus of two years, with the film ‘Desert Dancer.’

• In 2012, Freida joined Plan International’s “Because I am a Girl” campaign as Global Ambassador, promoting gender equality to lift millions of girls out of poverty.

• In 2013, she appeared in a video clip for Gucci’s “Chime for Change” campaign to raise funds and awareness of women’s issues in terms of education, health, and justice.

• In April 2013, she collaborated with  the UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for the Call to Action – Girl Rising campaign.

• In July 2014, she spoke at the Girl Summit in London, where she called for more progress toward the end of female genital mutilation and child marriage.

• In February 2016, she joined “We Do It Together;” a nonprofit organization. This organization offers finance for documentaries, films, and TV series that promote women empowerment.

• In 2018, she appeared in ‘Love Sonia’ (an Indian Film). In the film, she was featured alongside Mrunal Thakur, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao, Anupam Kher, Richa Chadda, Adil Hussain, and others.

  

• She is fond of dogs and often shares her pictures with dogs through her Instagram account.

• Frieda is good friends with the Indian-American actor, Siddharth Mallya.

• On 21 October 2021, when the actress appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, she revealed that she got married to her fiancé Cory Tran during the Covid-19 lockdown. ^[8]Hindustan Times She said,
  

  I should clear the air. I wasn’t planning a big fat Indian wedding. It was just going to be something pretty and simple… But then Covid happened and it’s still happening and we just realized we were going to be planning this for the rest of our lives and probably never doing it.”