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Freida Pinto talks about her Girl Rising campaign in India
Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; August 31, 2015)

Freida Pinto uses her celebrity status to bring to India a short film that traces the ills that plague the Indian society. The gender bias and the lack of education for women formed the basis of her film titled Girl Rising: Woh Padhegi, Woh Udegi that aired on Saturday. Joining Freida were a host of actors including Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Madhuri Dixit, Sushmita Sen, Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar. Here Freida talks about the initiative.

Tell us about your campaign…
Girl Rising is a global campaign for girls’ education that uses the power of storytelling to share the simple truth that educating girls can transform societies. It unites girls, women, boys and men who believe every girl has the right to go to school and the right to reach her full potential. Our mission is to change the way the world values the girl and ensure that girls’ education is part of the mainstream global conversation. So, I, along with a lot other strong, influential women, be it Priyanka, Sushmita, Madhuri, Alia, Parineeti and others, decided to bring this in India through a film.

Would you call this campaign an extension of yourself?
Oh God! I hope so. I get attracted to projects if I feel they are impactful. I don’t look for myself in the characters I play. It need not necessarily be who I am but I need to know the strength. Whether the strength is internalised or it projects an outward appearance, that’s very important. Why do we go to watch films? Because we want to be inspired or entertained, want to laugh or feel. If I don’t feel that while taking up a project, I wouldn’t do it.

How would you define a strong woman in today’s world?
A strong woman for me would be someone who knows herself — not just her strengths — she knows her weaknesses and shortcomings as well.

Who in Bollywood fits that bill?
I love Sushmita Sen. One of the reasons why I really wanted her to be in this project is she is an absolutely self-made woman. If I talk about successful women and you start counting how many films you’ve done or how much money your films have made, I don’t know if you would count Sushmita in it, but for me, she is the most successful woman. Because not only has she made a mark on the international platform with her beauty pageant and in the film industry, she is a wonderful mother. She stands her ground, says what she has to say and is not worried about telling, you are wrong or admitting she’s wrong.

With Bollywood actors coming on board, do you think this will bring a change in the society at large?
Let me first clarify, this is not about actresses. It’s not about me or Priyanka or Alia or others. We, as actresses are just providing the vehicles for these girls whose stories we are actually telling. These are not girls who are famous or are on magazine covers. They are your everyday girls. This is, not in any way, for any of us to be furthering our good image. In fact, Mr. Bachchan and Farhan too are there in the film but it’s just their voices. So the shift that you are talking about can only happen if we can use the star power to leverage the cause and then empower communities, teachers, schools and governments to take this campaign forward on their own.

Deepika’s video on women empowerment caused a lot of controversy...
I don’t think I have watched this particular one. We aren’t telling controversial stories. At the same time, we don’t want to lie and if there’s some injustice, we want to report that in our story. It’s not a controversial film, but a very inspirational one.