Prem Raj wants Freida!

After hitting the jackpot in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, Freida Pinto came to be one of the biggest stars to have emerged from the country and if all goes as planned, she will soon mark her Bollywood debut in Prem Raj's Bombay Muumbaai.

Prem Raj of Main aur Mrs Khanna fame debuts as producer with Bombay Muumbaai –a project highly anticipated in industry circles thanks to the controversial nature of its title.

Directed by Shivam Nair, Bombay Muumbaai spans the 15 year gap in the transition of Mumbai, taking audiences through the story of two people who are separated in the 90's only to meet again a decade later in the same city. After having wowed audiences in the Oscar award winning film Slumdog Millionaire, Freida went on to work in Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and has her kitty filled with meaty Hollywood projects. For now, however, the star is keen to work on the Bollywood film still in its nascent stage.

Says a source "Freida wants to be really convinced about the script before she signs films here in Bollywood. Prem and Freida are in discussion over the movie and if all goes as planned she will very soon be making her Bollywood debut in Bombay Muumbaai." Doing what few could Prem Raj convinced two of Bollywood's biggest stars Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor to star in his directorial debut at the peak of their careers and if that wasn't enough he also plans to direct Salman again, making this his second film with the star in a span of two years which is a commendable feat in itself. For now the director/producer looks forward to Bombay Muumbaai that will be produced by Wildcard Entertainment Private Limited.

Read more: Prem Raj wants Freida! - The Times of India

Why Freida dumped B'wood role?

Freida Pinto, who won over audiences across the globe with her performance in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, has revealed that she once turned down a Bollywood role after a lusty director demanded her to strip off for a sex scene.
The 25-year-old from Mumbai was asked to bare all – even though the director had no intention of including the shots in his finished movie. Pinto has been one of India’s hottest models. She posed for sexy shoots when she was on the books of top agency Elite Model Management.

However, all the time she was dreaming of acting glory.

“I remember harbouring dreams of being an actor since I was five years old,” the Daily Star quoted her, as saying. For someone like me with no godfather
in the film industry it was easier to break into modelling. I did use modelling as a means to get into the film world. I enjoyed modelling. It taught me a lot in terms of being confident and definitely helped me prepare for what was to come next,” she added.

Pinto, who played Latika in Danny Boyle’s flick, also revealed that she plans to stay in Hollywood, rather than the Bollywood film industry.

“Since I am just starting, I will keep myself flexible for roles, films
and different film industries,” she said.

“But basically, I would like to focus on Hollywood because it gave me my first chance,” she added.

Freida & fame

Freida Pinto might still be just another pretty girl when she steps out on the streets of Mumbai, her home city, but when she goes to Los Angeles or New York in the US, people recognise her.

That’s because Freida, along with the rest of the cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire, the Danny Boyle-directed movie, are the latest darlings of the international film festival circuit. Danny, the director of movies like Trainspotting, chose Mumbai as the setting for Slumdog Millionaire, the story of a boy who enters Kaun Banega Crorepati to find his ladylove. Freida plays the part of the beloved.

She’d been doing a travel show for a while, and “nothing was happening” when the casting director for Slumdog came to India and Frieda learnt that they were auditioning for the movie. “I just couldn’t believe it,” she says. “I mean, it was so big – I’d studied one of Danny’s films back in college at St Xavier’s (Mumbai)!” She had to audition for six months till, to her disbelief, she got the role. “I was ecstatic. I was screaming and jumping around, and my mom came and saw me and said that she wouldn’t stop me. ‘Go ahead and jump,’ she said, ‘You deserve it.’ At that time, no one could fathom how big the opportunity was.”

That she did, and it paid off – she says that when she started touring internationally with Dev, the response they got as Indian actors was phenomenal. “In Toronto, the film got a standing ovation. It’s true that people have discovered Mumbai through the film. It’s changed the perception that it’s a poor city. They’ve seen it in the film as a big metropolitan city, the financial capital, a power centre... The film’s put Mumbai on the map, and it’s making a mark for itself,” she says.

Freida was in LA when she heard of the terror attack in Mumbai. “My heart goes out to all those who lost their lives or loved ones in the attack,” she says.

A couple of days after the attack, Freida was rushing off to London again. She’s been so busy touring the world for Slumdog, she says, that she hasn’t had time to consider other offers yet. “It’s so funny. I can sit in a rickshaw in Mumbai and no one will recognise me, but in LA, they can tell who I am now,” she giggles.