London, March 01: Just months ago she was a virtual nobody, but with the eight Oscar sweep by her debut film “Slumdog Millionaire”, Indian model-turned-actress Freida Pinto is now hot property for magazine covers. Being the obvious new darling of Hollywood, Freida has also become a much in-demand magazine cover girl back home for obvious reasons, reports dailymail.co.uk.
The actress will dominate the newsstands across India in March, with men’s magazine Maxim opting to put her face and knock-out body on its cover, as will women’s magazines Cosmopolitan and Vogue.
Basking in her new found success, the 24-year-old, who has described her meteoric rise to fame as a “dream”, also appears on the cover of industry bible Entertainment Weekly alongside her co-star from the underdog drama Dev Patel.
Posing for the covers didn’t come hard for the actress as she started out her career posing in advertisements for products like Wrigley’s Chewing Gum.
“I used to anchor a travel show in India, which is clearly not acting, and I had done a little bit of modelling. Both of those things helped me with the camera,” she said.
Freida, however, always had acting at the back of her mind as a career.
“I always wanted to act in films, but in India it’s very difficult to become an actress if you haven’t got a godfather – someone with influence, always a man, in the industry to help get you into auditions.
“But I didn’t need a godfather for ‘Slumdog…’ I just went along, did the audition with Dev and then Danny picked me,” she explained.
Despite the success of her first film and her passion for acting, she is not sure of her career in the profession.
“I have no idea whether acting is a future for me, but I would like to do more film work. The reaction to ‘Slumdog…’ has been beyond my wildest expectations.”
In what will be only her second film, Freida is now lined up to star in Woody Allen’s next alongside Hollywood stars Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts and Anthony Hopkins.
Filming will start in London this summer.(IANS)