I had to seize the moment and strike while iron was hot, says Freida Pinto

Melbourne: Freida Pinto, who is determined to show the world she’s no one-hit wonder, has admitted that instant stardom has taken some getting used to.

The 27-year-old Indian-born beauty was trying to make ends meet, working as a model in her native Mumbai, when British director Danny Boyle plucked her from relative obscurity to star in his 2008 film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

The fact she beat off hundreds of other actors in an extensive six-month global audition process would be amazing enough. But the fairytale didn’t end there. 


That little film of Boyle’s struck a chord with audiences worldwide and went all the way to the Oscars where, in 2009, it scooped eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Suddenly, Pinto was a Hollywood star. 

“It took a while to accept what had happened,” the Daily Telegraph quoted her as saying.

“As much as I was happy with what was going on, it was almost too much to take in for somebody who’d never experienced any of that before.
“Surrounding myself with good people such as family and close friends helped me keep my head on my shoulders.

“That said, the one thing I knew was I had to seize the moment and strike while the iron was hot,” she added.

Fame wasn’t the only thing Pinto gained from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, she also bagged herself a boyfriend, falling in love with her London-born co-star Dev Patel, now 22.