'Everybody wants to visit India'

…Says actor Freida Pinto, as she talks about Hollywood's interest in India and reveals her secret of surviving out there.

Despite her other releases, she is still be known as the 'Slumdog Millionaire' girl in Hollywood, but actor Freida Pinto says that it's a tag she'll always be proud of. Here the actor gets candid about her journey to the big West and clarifies rumours about her Bond role.

Q. Is there any curiosity in the West about an Indian actor being on sets? What's the most frequent question they ask about India?
 There was no real curiosity about my involvement in the film as we shot with a very multicultural cast and crew and most of my films have been like this. But the question I get the most is 'when is the best time to visit India?' Everybody wants to visit India. And considering I have travelled quite a bit in India thanks to my family members being in the army I have all kinds of suggestions to give them.

Q. Is Bollywood on your cards?
Indian cinema has always been on the cards and for me 'Slumdog...' and 'Trishna' are kind of Indian films anyway.

Q. Who would you want to be paired opposite in Bollywood?
I have never thought of this, but I absolutely admire actors like Abhay Deol who is a representative of the new age independent cinema. The intensity of actors like Kay Kay Menon and Manoj Bajpai just make every performance of theirs noteworthy and memorable. In fact, there is this actor named Nawazzuddin who played Asgar Mukkadam in 'Black Friday' -- I paused and played back his interrogation scene in the prison several times to watch him play his part.

Q. What's the biggest challenge of surviving in Hollywood?
Not falling into the deep dark trap of stereotypes.

Q. Does work put a lot of pressure on your personal life especially when it concerns (actor and rumoured beau) Dev Patel?
It's not about the pressure it's about how you handle it and I handle it pretty well.

Q. What are your other projects?
I have 'Immortals' coming out on 11/11/11, 'Black Gold' and 'Trishna'.

Q. What about talks of you playing the Bond girl?
A flattering rumour that doesn't seem to go away.

Q. How was it working with James Franco, Brian Cox, Andy Serkis and the rest in your new release?
I absolutely enjoyed working with John Lithgow and Andy Serkis. James is a terrific actor and everybody knows that, he's not an Oscar nomination for nothing. He's got his own unique and distinctive style of acting, not conventional at all.

Q. There was buzz about the short length of your role in the flick ...
I always look as characters as contributions to the story. If the existence of my character did not affect the story at all then it would be a useless part for me to play. With every character, I have sussed out my purpose and if I find it to be very meaningful to the story then I take it on. Also actors have to be aware that what happens in post after they have done their bit rarely depends on them. Hence you have to believe in the vision of the director.