I refuse to work with someone that I know is a repeat sexual offender: Freida Pinto

Since the #MeToo movement started, Freida Pinto says her fight involves rejecting movies with men who she knows to be abusers.

The Slumdog Millionaire star shared: “I refuse to work with someone that I know is a repeat offender. I wish I could do the same here (in India),” Freida said, after acknowledging that Hollywood empowers its actors far more than Hindi cinema does its women.

She also called out the prevalent harassment within Bollywood.

“The whole MeToo movement in the west was possible because there was a lot of support, and a lot of research went into it. We all know who the people are in India. It is the same way everyone knew it was Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood, but someone had the courage, and in this case Ronan Farrow (journalist with The New Yorker) to get deep into his research and get support for these women and support them when that story would come out. You tell me one journalist in India who would do that and put his career on the line,” she shared.

Earlier in her career, the actress had worked with Woody Allen, who has been accused of sexual assault by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.

Talking about how she felt about working with him in hindsight, she explained, "I have been thinking a lot about that. When #MeToo broke, I figured that these are the questions that would come my way. I don't regret working with him. I learnt quite a lot from my co-stars. But, going forward, will I be mindful of the projects that are attached with someone who has been accused of a thing like this? Of course. Because I don't know how some people can get away with it."

Pinto will be seen next in Love Sonia also starring Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadha, Rajkummar Rao and Anupam Kher among others. The movie tells the heartfelt and brave story of Sonia (Mrunal Thakur), a young Indian village girl whose life irrevocably changes when she is entrapped into the vicious global sex trade network; the flick hits cinemas today.