Freida Pinto to receive International Icon award at IIFA

Madrid, June 22  "Slumdog Millionaire" star Freida Pinto will make her debut at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) gala in Madrid. The US-based Indian actress will be honoured with International Icon award at the 17th edition of the gala, which will begin on Thursday.

IIFA -- often known as Bollywood's Oscars -- is held every year to honour the best of Hindi cinema. A source from the IIFA team confirmed that Freida will be getting the honour.

In a short span of her career in the entertainment industry, Freida has carved out a niche of her own in world cinema through her roles in films like "Slumdog Millionaire", "Miral", "Day of the Falcon", "Immortals", "Desert Dancer" and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes".

The actress is not all about glamour and films. She has also done her bit for the society -- be it aligning herself with social cause like "Girl Rising” campaign or getting together with female stars for a production house to solve the issue of gender disparity in Hollywood. 

After attending the awards ceremony on Sunday, Freida will fly off straight to Monrovia (capital of Liberia) to join the First Lady of the US Michelle Obama for Let Girls Learn -- a government initiative aimed at helping girls obtain quality education.

Freida, along with Michelle Obama, her daughters Sasha and Malia and their grandmother Marian Robinson - will travel to Liberia, Morocco and Spain at the end of June and early July as part of the Let Girls Learn initiative.