Currently in the UK, Slumdog actress Freida Pinto has been talking about coping with life in the aftermath of the Oscar-winning movie. “I found it all a bit overwhelming at first, but now I’m determined to make the most of it. I don’t want to look back in ten years and think that I missed out,” she says. And what of her relationship with co-star Dev Patel? “He’s a really, really, great guy, and I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful co-star. He’s adorable, and a good friend. He always will be,” she confirms.
Freida has recently been filming Miral in Israel with Willem Dafoe and Yasmine El Masri, and she will then move on to her Woody Allen project which also stars Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts and Antonio Banderas. With all this traveling, where does Freida call home? “I don’t have a fixed address as I’m making movies all over the world,” she explains, “I’m filming in Israel at the moment and who knows after that, so I’m not making plans to buy my own place yet. Ultimately, Mumbai will always be home. That’s where my family is.”
Miral is based on the life of Palestinian social activist Hind Husseini, who worked to create a children’s orphanage after the Deir Yassin massacre. Initially starting with 55 children, the orphanage later converted to a school housing up to 2000 children, of which at its peak, 300 were orphans. The movie is based on a book by Palestinian-Italian writer Rula Jebreal – “The Road of Flowers of Miral”.
