Freida Pinto is returning to the small screen. “The Path” alumna is slated to star in and produce a limited series based on former U.S. Marine Anuradha Bhagwati’s memoir “Unbecoming: A Story of Disobedience.” Entertainment One acquired rights to the book. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.
“Unbecoming” charts “Bhagwati’s journey from being raised as the dutiful daughter of immigrants through her service in the Marine Corps to becoming an activist effecting historic policy reform,” the source summarizes. “Bhagwati spurned graduate school to join the Marines, but once there her ‘G.I. Jane’ fantasy was deflated. As a bisexual woman of color in the military, she ran up against misogyny, sexual violence, and racism while pushing herself through the Corps’ grueling Officer Candidates School.”
“I served during a time when it was criminal to come out of the closet,” Bhagwati explains in “Unbecoming.” “There was a policy of ‘don’t ask don’t tell,’ which forbid you to be gay, bisexual and transgender. I had a little bit of privilege because I was an officer. But I would look at what was happening in the unit. I knew marines who were deeply in the closet. I just did not talk about it with anyone in uniform.”
Bhagwati went on to found Service Women’s Action Network, a non-profit that “supports, connects, and advocates for service women; past, present, and future,” according to its website.
“Unbecoming” hit bookshelves this March. Neither a writer nor a director are attached to the TV adaptation yet.
Pinto broke out with 2008 smash hit “Slumdog Millionaire.” Her credits since include “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” “Guerrilla,” and “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.”
