The Slumdog Millionaire girl, Freida Pinto, was in Mumbai recently to promote her new film Mowgli and attend its world premiere. Freida, who was last seen in Love Sonia, spoke to me about her notion of “home” between Mumbai and LA and she also revealed which Hindi film she last saw totally bowled her over.
Here’s my conversation with Freida Pinto:
Q: Hi Freida and welcome to The Quint. You were here a few months ago for Love Sonia and now it’s good to have you back promoting Mowgli. What is it like for you when you return to Bombay, is it like coming back home or has the notion of home changed from Bombay to LA or are both similar?
The notion of home has changed entirely, I used to connect it to a place. As important as a place might be in terms of identity, in terms of feeling settled, I feel for me it’s where people are. So obviously this is home for me because I have my family over here - my parents, my sister, my best friends who I grew up with. But then there is also the same kind of feeling I have with my friends, who have become my family in LA and in New York and London. So, really home is where ever the people around me make me feel like I am at home.
Q: The Jungle Book is probably something you watched growing up, there are some stories like The Jungle Book which are done retelling but there is always an audience for it. What do you think it is about Rudyard Kipling’s book that makes it such a good source for retelling?
Your first question was about home, and with home the next thing that you think about is belonging somewhere - being accepted or being a part of a community or having people who understand you and relate to you. And I think that’s really Mowgli’s journey as well from being adopted as a man cub in the community of the wolves, him feeling that he truly belongs but the wolf pack knowing that he doesn’t fully fully belong here. And when Mowgli goes back to the human world, he completely doesn’t feel like he fits in there, but he looks like them and he can eat the food they eat. So I think in many ways the story of belonging and the story of being part of something is always going to call for various versions. This particular version is a more realistic, a more intense, a deeper version delving into the emotions of these various characters. But again whenever you bring on characters like the animal characters - Baloo is not just a bear, we have a Baloo in our lives, a Baloo kind of character in our lives. I feel the story of belonging and home will always have so many versions.
Q: I was talking to Andrew Serkis and what he said drew him to the story is Mowgli’s search for self, a search to know who he is and where he belongs and I guess we all go through that at some point in life. Did Freida Pinto go through that, probably as an actor, just trying to find out what she is all about and where she belongs?
Oh absolutely, one hundred percent, it’s the journey that every human absolutely has to go on. I’ve had such a monumental shift in my life at a very very young age with Slumdog Millionaire coming at a time when I wasn’t born into a film family so I didn’t know how to embrace it or what to expect or where to go from there. Things started to change very drastically and I kind of feel the real question was, okay, everything around me could change like the work environment I live in can change, the people I work with change all the time, there’s always a new set of people, but who am I in all of these settings? I’m first of all ever changing so I am never going to be a constant. But what is at the core of me that I take from one phase to another phase to another phase and I feel that journey of self discovery is something I very much relate to. I think the more open you stay, the more wonderful things you discover about yourself.
Q: And it’s also probably never ending, right?
Never ending and it should never end, till your last breathe and your dying day. Because I feel someone at 90 is still discovering something new.
Q: One question that pops up every time you are seen in India is, when do we get to see Freida Pinto in a homegrown Bollywood film? Is it that you are currently happy with the kind of projects that you are getting in the West or is it that there is no good script that has come up from the Hindi film industry which you would want to do?
I don’t think it’s the no good script thing at all, it’s more the first thing. It’s not that I’m happy with everything that’s coming from there so I don’t want to do anything over here. It’s just that I have built my career very very differently and obviously there is a good flow of work that has come in from the path that I have chosen and also I am creating my own work. So, it’s not like I don’t want to be a part of a full blown homegrown film, but my sensibilities are very different and I’m very non-apologetic about it. I don’t think I can do justice to a song and dance kind of film and that is not my sensibility in terms of performing, I love watching movies like that. So I won’t commit myself to something where I feel like I’m not in it one hundred percent. But yeah, an independent film coming from India, why not?
Q: Is there any recent Hindi film that you saw which you really liked and you felt, I wish I was a part of this one?
I don’t wish that I was part of it, simply because I felt everyone who was in it did such a good job and for me that was probably one of my favourite roles that I have seen Deepika in, Deepika Padukone, and that was Piku. I felt that was something very different, something that she hasn’t done before. Mr Bachchan’s always amazing in every role that he plays. But it was like a very fun little film, very heartfelt film, so I really truly did enjoy that particular one. And then one of my favourite actors in India and I say this all the time, is Richa, Richa Chadha. If I could have a career in India, it would be the career that she’s chosen for herself.
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