Freida Pinto Sexy Esquire UK Photoshoot

She was the Indian girl with the faraway eyes in Slumdog Millionaire, the best-supporting hottie in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. And this month? She’s none other than the cover star of Esquire’s April issue. What her audiences perhaps don’t yet know about Freida is that she’s also a funny, no-nonsense, fast-talking Anglophile who loves London almost as much as her home town. She says:

Even though it’s so dreadful in the winter, I still think it’s beautiful. So much culture and history. Like Bombay!”

As the biggest Indian movie star in the West, she also feels that she’s needed to adopt an almost ambassadorial role for her home country. Freida says:

It’s almost a duty. People are very curious about India and I always try to represent my country in a non-stereotypical light.”

Talking on her latest film, in which she appears half-naked, Freida said:

It was hard but it was a small crew, and they were good at not making their presence felt. They didn’t go, ‘Quick! She’s nearly naked! Get your camera out!’”

There’s no guarantee that her new film Trishna, an Indian reworking of Tess of the Durbevilles directed by Michael Winterbottom, will even get a release in India where censorship is strict.

Even if it doesn’t, the people who want to see it will find a way to get an uncensored copy.”

In an interview with Esquire, the Indian actress talks candidly about fame and her love life with boyfriend Dev Patel. And she also reveals she once had a crush on Leonardo di Caprio.

Having been thrust onto the world stage after the success of Slumdog Millionaire, Freida has had to grow up quickly. She said:

Now I’ve learned all these tricks. Always smile, and look slowly from left to the right. But in 2009, I was new to all of it.”

It was the Alice in Wonderland effect. Angelina Jolie would walk past and I was, like, ‘Seriously?'”

Read the full Freida Pinto interview in the April issue of Esquire – on sale Thursday 1 March.

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