In her debut film, “Slumdog Millionaire,” Freida Pinto won plaudits for her

In her debut film, “Slumdog Millionaire,” Freida Pinto won plaudits for her portrayal of a girl from the slums groomed for a life of prostitution. Off screen the Hollywood actress is now lending her voice to save other girls from that very same fate.

Pinto, 28, is an ambassador for Plan USA’s Because I Am A Girl campaign, a narrator on the ground-breaking documentary film Girl Rising, which debuted on CNN, and shared a stage with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon at the launch of the World Bank’s campaign to empower girls and women around the world.

Pinto has criticized the “male-dominated” world of film, calling for more female writers and directors to help bring more strong female characters for women of all ages.

“The only way to cure that problem is to have more female writers and more female directors,” she said. “There will be a different perspective when you have women writers and women directors. There is sometimes a misconception that a female director can’t really tackle manly issues and definitely Kathryn Bigelow proves them wrong.”

So would she get behind the camera herself?

“I believe that I’m on my way to becoming a producer because there are so many stories that I read that I’m so inspired by,” says Pinto.

Continue at www.cnn.com