FRIEDA PINTO ( THE NEXT BOND GIRL)

Slumdog Millionaire is a runaway hit: made on a budget of US $15 million, it's raked in well over five times that amount. SIt's also bagged dozens of awards-including for 10 Oscars and Frieda Pinto is, suddenly everywhere: in London, Los Angeles, New York, Mumbai and Toronto, seemingly all at once. She's hanging out with Clint Eastwood, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo with Clint Eastwood, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslete, Paris Hilton and Sean Penn. She's emerging as a new style icon; she even topped style com's 10Best Dressed list in early February (beating Renee Zellwegger and Wendi Murdoch). Luck, it seems is rooting for Frieda as she is being touted as the next Bond girl. She is definitely going places. According to the report of a UK magazine, Pinto is a hot contender to star opposite Daniel Craig in the next film Bond 23. It has also been reported that the director of Slumdog Millionaire. Danny Boyle will be helming the next spy thriller. So far, Frieda has neither confirmed nor denied this story. Pinto is being regarded as a symbol of a ' New Young Indian', filled with promise and potential: she's modern, beautiful, articulate, independently successful, part of a growing middle-class that's equally at home in the East and West.