Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto’s amazing rise to fame has come despite her never taking any acting lesson, but her friends are not a bit surprised about her success.
Her proud elder sister Sharon has revealed how Freida has been preparing all her life for becoming an actress.
“I always knew she wanted to do something in front of the camera. As a child she would stand in front of the mirror and imitate actors. She would stick photos up in her room of actors and actresses she liked. For Christmas we would have these little plays and she would write, direct and star in them. They were very amateurish but she would get the kids together to sing,” the Mirror quoted her as saying.
“And every afternoon, she’d sing or put on a play for the family. It’s thrilling to see her on the red carpet, and see picture in the papers,” she added.
Sharon, who is an Indian TV producer, also threw some light on how it felt after seeing Freida triumph at the Golden Globes on the back of the Danny Boyle-directed flick.
“She can’t believe it. It’s so unreal for her. All these people she looked up to and she is now sitting next to them – it’s overwhelming for her. She’s loving it,” she said.
“She’s a real Mumbai girl. The other day she called me up from Los Angeles, all excited, and told me to switch on the TV. And there she was presenting at the Golden Globes with Shahrukh Khan (Bollywood’s top matinee idol)! I was so proud of her,” she added.
Freida’s mother Sylvia, is a school headmistress, recalled how Sushmita Sen’s victory at the Miss Universe contest in 1994 proved to be a defining point in her life.
“When she saw Sushmita Sen win she said, ‘I am going to do something like that some day.’ She cut Sushmita’s picture out and stuck it on the back of her cupboard,” she said.
Freida’s college friend Namit Das, who is also an actor, said: “I always knew she’d make it. She had that vibe about her, that single-mindedness. She was very talented, very loveable, and very good-looking.”
Freida’s college tutor Dr Shefali Balsari-Shah has revealed that she had been a fairly quite girl those days, but her of theatre eventually brought out a more confident character.
The mentor, who is delighted to see her blossom, said: “Freida was very bubbly and lively, but rather dreamy-eyed and quiet until her last year in college. Then she came into her own. She directed a Kafka play for our theatre festival and did a very good job. I was impressed. She had a gift for dealing with all kinds of people, even difficult ones.”
She added: “She’s a genuinely nice, unpretentious person. She called me before the Golden Globes to thank me and the college for giving her the confidence to talk about film and pop culture in her Hollywood interviews. There’s nothing of the prima donna about her.”
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