Freida Pinto and Irrfan Khan attended the India Today Conclave 2013 and spoke about their career, dreams, & the difference between Bollywood and Hollywood.
Freida talked of how she had always dreamt of being an international icon. She gave insights into life after Slumdog Millionaire and how she played the racial ambiguity card to land different types of roles and characters in Hollywood. She didn't want to portray the stereotypical Indian girl looking to get married in America but instead took up Mediterranean, Latin American and Mexican roles.
Irrfan Khan talked about how Indian award ceremonies don't celebrate or nurture talent but are just ways to market stars.
Both actors noted that India has come a long way and there are films being made which don't involve cliché plots and characters. They reflected on the difference between Bollywood and Hollywood scripts. They felt while the former was interested more in marketing and making it big at the box office, the latter looked more at developing interesting offbeat characters on screen.