Bollywood doesn’t treat women like dolls: Freida Pinto

PANAJI - Indian actress Freida Pinto, who made it to Hollywood after the Oscar winning “Slumdog Millionaire”, says women are not treated like dolls in Bollywood and she is certainly game for a Hindi movie if a good one comes along.

“Women are not treated like dolls in Bollywood,” Freida said addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI), where her film “You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger” directed by Woody Allen, is being screened.

Freida also accused the media of sensationalising her comments on Bollywood.

“I never said I don’t want to be in Bollywood… Bollywood is like a big celebration. It is wrong to say Bollywood treats women like dolls,” Freida said, when a reporter asked her to clarify her statement to the media earlier, where she had allegedly said she wanted to avoid roles in masala movies and Bollywood films per se.

“The media picks and chooses what people say. There are slots in newspaper which they need to fill with sensation. You put people like us in a tough position,” said Pinto.

Claiming that “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” and “Sholay” remained her favourite films, Pinto said she was certainly game for a Bollywood role if one came by and if it was good enough.

She also chided the media for equating Bollywood to Indian cinema. “Bollywood is a part of Indian cinema. There are other alternative cinemas in India too,” Freida said.

She has also had enough of big budget films - “Slumdog Millionaire” and the Woody Allen venture - for the moment and now wants to do “realistic cinema” for a change.

“A film has to satisfy you. I don’t want to do that kind of a film again right now. After two big budget films, I am looking at doing more realistic cinema,” Freida said.

She said names in cinema like Stephen Spielberg were not a big draw for her and that she would love to work even with debutants who were making films on interesting subjects.