SHE'S been hailed as one of the world's most beautiful women but Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto has only recently become comfortable in her own skin.
Mumbai-born Freida admits she used to think of her latte-coloured skin as a drawback. She said: "There's one disturbing notion throughout India that light skin is more attractive than dark."
And it's a belief even Freida once shared. She admitted: "When you doubt one thing about yourself, you start thinking there's also something wrong with your hair, your body, your clothes, your accent."
In her modelling days, she even auditioned for jobs advertising Indian "fairness creams", supposed to lighten darker skins.
"I knew those products were wrong, so I'd show up with a heavy heart," said the 25-year-old.
Freida is now grateful that she didn't advertise any of those creams - and a chance encounter with a stranger in a Hollywood hotel made her appreciate true beauty.
She explained: "A woman came up to me and said, 'I'd love to have your skin because it's so beautiful.' She was as pale as could be, and my first thought was - where I come from, people want to be your colour."
"It was then that I realised people always want what they don't have. And I decided to be happy with the way I'm made."
Now Freida is a face for L'Oreal make-up and works hard to keep her skin looking good with exercise, a regular cleansing routine and plenty of water.
She added: "I make loads of fresh vegetable juices with coriander or pepper so that it's tastier. The concoction makes my skin glow and is good for the digestive system too."
Of course, there may be another reason for her happy glow - boyfriend Dev Patel, her co-star in Slumdog Millionaire.
Since starring in the Oscar-winning hit, Freida has worked all over the world.
For You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, which opened last month, she worked in London and New York with Woody Allen.
Then she travelled to Tunisia to play an Arab princess opposite Antonio Banderas in Black Gold, and in Hollywood she worked on a prequel to Planet of the Apes.
It's been hard for her to find time for former Skins actor Dev, last seen in the blockbuster The Last Airbender.
"Dev's so understanding," she said. "That's what really matters and that's how we make it work."
Despite being brought up in Mumbai, acting in Slumdog Millionaire opened her eyes to the poverty in the city.
"I've lived all my life there but I never really bothered about life at a slum," she confessed.
"But the movie, made by a foreigner in my own backyard made me more sensitive. It made me realise that people are so poor not out of laziness, but because of the lack of an opportunity to succeed."
In India, Freida and Dev, 21, are seen as the equivalent of Posh and Becks.
And when they went back to Mumbai to visit the city slums, they were mobbed. Or at least Dev was.
"Nobody recognised me at all," she laughed। "They all followed Dev, calling him crorepati - which means millionaire."
source
Gwen Stefani graces the cover of Elle’s May issue, on newsstands April 12.
