Freida Pinto does her bit for West African girls

If her success in Hollywood is the kind to stir envy in Bollywood, then being romanced by Holly hottie Christian ‘Batman’ Bale is just driving the stake further. Indian actor Freida Pinto was recently spotted in romantic clinches with Christian while shooting for Knight of Cups at  Santa Monica beach. They clearly shared an easy camaraderie, talking and laughing amongst themselves. Now and then, Freida would be seen smiling and walking under the piers, oblivious to the waves touching and dampening her grey maxi dress.

The actor has all reasons to be in a reverie. Besides being wooed by Christian, she plays the inspiration for the protagonist Afshin Gaffarian (Reece Ritchie) of Desert Dancer to fight for his dreams to become a dancer. Based on a true story set in Iran, where dance is illegal, Freida has apparently taken some dancing lessons in ballet (first level), belly dance and contemporary dance for the film.

But films and romances are not the only thing keeping the actor busy. She recently visited Sierra Leone in West Africa as a global ambassador for Plan International’s Because I am a Girl (BIAAG) campaign, where apparently women are affected by a number of issues — early marriages, genital mutilation, lack of education, teenage pregnancies, death due to pregnancy, self-imposed prostitution amongst others. The actor apparently was quite overwhelmed with her experience out there. She was quite ‘amazed’ at how articulate the girls were despite the fact that they were battling numerous issues day-in and day-out. “Ask them what their dreams are and they will, in their extremely polished, polite and upper-crust English, tell you that they want to be accountants, doctors, journalists, politicians — but only after they say that they dream of a place that is rid of gender inequality,” Freida observed.

Considering India too had its girl issues, did Freida plan to take them up here? A source informs that India and Nepal are definitely on the actor’s agenda, as they feature among the eight places that have been marked for the campaign.