Indian Actors And Actress Will Light Up Cannes 2011

Indian actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Freida Pinto will light up the Red Carpet for L’Oreal Paris at the Cannes Film Festival to be held from May 11 – 22.

It is for the first time that L’Oreal Paris will have three spokeswomen representing India at Cannes, a testimony to India’s growing influence on the world stage.

Founded in 1946, the Cannes Film Festival is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious film festivals and L’Oreal Paris has been the official make-up artist of the festival for 14 years.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who celebrates a decade of representing L’Oreal Paris at Cannes, will, like previous years, walk the red carpet on May 11 for the opening ceremony and will attend the Opening Gala cocktail and dinner while attending various events at Cannes on May 12.

She said, “Being at Cannes for L’Oreal Paris has been an absolute pleasure and to experience this for the tenth consecutive year has been quite overwhelming. I thank the L’Oreal Paris team and the Cannes Film Festival for inviting me every year to represent India at one of the most glamorous red carpets on the world platform, celebrating cinema, showbiz, beauty, diversity and excellence.”

“Several countries have always had more than one L’Oreal Paris spokeswoman at Cannes and I’m glad India is finally getting the same recognition.

I am happy that with Sonam and Freida, both beautiful women, being invited to the festival this year, India will have a stronger presence, which is a clear sign of the growing importance of the country,” said Aishwarya.

This is also the first year that Freida Pinto and Sonam Kapoor will represent L’Oreal Paris at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sonam Kapoor who will walk the red carpet on May 15, said, “It has always been my dream to walk the red carpet at Cannes and it is soon going to be a reality thanks to L’Oreal Paris. I look forward to meeting actors and film makers from the world over and attending screenings of some interesting films.

“But what excites me the most is meeting the L’Oreal Paris international dream team of make-up artistes and seeing how they transform me for one of the most glamorous red carpets in the world.”

Freida Pinto will represent L’Oreal Paris at the amFAR (The American Foundation for AIDS Research) dinner and after-party on May 19.

The amFAR event co-sponsored by L’Oreal Paris aims at raising money against AIDS.

She said, “I am very proud to represent L’Oreal Paris, a brand that has always supported the cause of women and accentuated their beauty on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. It is every actors dream to attend this festival but I am especially privileged as I also get to lend my support to an important cause by attending the amFAR dinner when I’m there.”

L’Oreal Paris will also introduce its first dream team of three internationally renowned make-up artists – Karim Rahman, Billy B and Rie Omoto who will design exclusive make-up looks for all the spokeswomen, jury members and actresses present during the course of the festival.

The other L’Oreal spokespeople attending Cannes this year are Cheryl Cole, Eva Longoria, Gwen Stefani, Claudia Schiffer, Patrick Dempsey, Diane Kruger, Jane Fonda, Milla Jovovich, Aimee Mullins, Laetitia Casta, Paz Vega, Fan Binging, Ximena Navarrete, Zhang Zilin, Ines de la Fressange, Gong Li, Doutzen Kroes, Li Bing Bing.

Freida Pinto Working In An Indian Film

Freida Pinto is out to prove she’s no one-film wonder with her performance in "Miral", based on Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal’s semi-autobiographical novel. The actress believes in speaking through her work and says she won’t mind working in an Indian film -- provided she falls in love with the script.

"If Indian films came my way and I loved the script, I would say yes. Quite contrary to what people believe, I haven’t said yes to every international script that has come my way. I have said no to quite a few. Similarly, unless and until I fall in love with the Indian script, I will not do it," Freida told IANS in an interview here.

Screened in the Narrative competition section at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, "Miral" that opens in Jerusalem in 1948 is the true story of Hind Husseini, who turns her family home into the Dar Al-Tifl Al-Arabi Institute, providing hope and education to orphans, especially girls. Freida’s character too grows up in the same orphanage.

The film is directed by American artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel and Freida says he cast her after seeing her in "Slumdog Millionaire".

"I auditioned for it, Danny Boyle put me on tape for this because Julian requested us while we were doing a press junket for ’Slumdog Millionaire’ in LA.

"I read the script and I completely fell in love with it. I felt this story definitely needed to be told to the world. I was getting an opportunity to be part of a story that talks about peace, so why not? That’s how the film happened."

The 26-year-old speaks English with a Palestinian accent in the war film. "I’m lucky, I can do accents well. I can listen and I can repeat what people say. So Julian set me on a mission - I didn’t have an accent coach, I had real people to learn from. I went to the old city of Jerusalem, stayed with a Palestinian family for eight days.

"I also went to the orphanage where Rula grew up. I picked up whatever I could from the students and local people. I recorded everything and found out words that are common and found my own accent. That’s my take on my Palestinian accent," she said.

The actress says she doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody back home and hopes Indians watch "Miral" since it talks about peace.

"I never had to prove myself while doing ’Slumdog…’ either. When the film went out, it did the best it could and did really well and that’s the story of my life. I didn’t have to go out of my way to prove a point in my first film, I don’t have to do it in any film," said Freida.

"I would definitely want to show ’Miral’ to India, but not to prove a point...the film (is) about peace which is so relevant in my country and in the countries that are warring or have some kind of conflict with neighbouring countries," she said.

Freida also got lucky to work with star Hollywood filmmaker Woody Allen in "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger".

"I auditioned for Woody Allen’s film too, quite contrary to what people think that these roles just fell in my lap. He saw me in ’Slumdog Millionaire’ and thought I would be great in that part. But he made me audition because he needed to know I’d be able to do it.

"He is definitely very unique and a genius in what he does. What’s most amazing about him is that he will take up serious and disturbing topics and punch the right amount of humour in it, which makes the film so much enjoyable and less depressing."

So what are the other international projects in her kitty?

"I have worked with Tarsem Singh in ’Immortals’. It’s a Greek epic. I play Phaedra, the oracle. Again there is no ethnicity to the character - she could be from any part of the world. The film is so multicultural that we never talk about ethnicity, though we talk about Greek places. We shot in a studio in Montreal and it’s in English. I did speak a bit of ancient Greek," she said.

"I also did a film called ’Rise Of The Apes’ with Rupert Wyatt. It’s a prequel to ’Planet of the Apes’," Freida said.

"Since I’ve taken acting as my profession, my ambition is to keep doing it and keep getting better. So I guess, my ambition is to enjoy life and enjoy my work as well," she concluded.

Freida Pinto To Win Oscar For Miral

Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto might be on her way to another Oscar, if critics are to be believed. The online trailer of her forthcoming film, Miral, which is slated for a September release, has been receiving rave reviews. 

The Hollywood film is set in war-torn Jerusalem. Freida plays Miral, an orphan raised in Jerusalem orphanages, who later starts teaching at a refugee camp and falls in love with a political activist.

It is her perfectly mastered accent, simple appearance and expression of struggle that has made people sit up and take notice. But getting there wasn't easy. "Miral specifically needed her to go through a lot of accent training. The entire unit was stationed in Israel for a long time, and they were all very driven to make this happen, because everyone believed in director Julian Schnabel's vision.

Being someone who's particular about getting under the skin of the character, Freida ensured that she gave it her all to understand the mindset of the trauma-struck 17-year-old she's playing," said Freida's spokesperson. In the film, she has actress Hiam Abbass of The Syrian Bride for company.

Bloggers, meanwhile, are all praise. "Bet the whole of Bollywood from Rekha to Mads and Amitabh to Aamir can only dream of delivering such a brilliant performance! (sic)," commented a viewer. "Strange how she suits being a 17-year-old!" wrote another user.

Freida Pinto And Dev Patel's Wedding Rumours Are Complete Rubbish And Baseless

Freida Pinto’s spokesperson has rubbished reports about the ’Slumdog Millionaire’ actress marrying her co-star Dev Patel.

Earlier, there were reports that the two were spotted enquiring about a wedding cake at a bakery and making arrangements to fly it to India for their forthcoming wedding.

"These rumours are complete rubbish and baseless. There is not even an ounce of truth in it," Divya Tejuja, Freida’s spokesperson said.

The two met in 2008 on the sets of ’Slumdog Millionaire’ and started dating some time later. But they kept their romance low-profile and didn’t appear in public together until late last ye