Actress Freida Pinto says growing up in Mumbai she feared the threat of being raped. Speaking to CNN’s Erin Brunett, Pinto talked about reading news reports on rape incidents, but did not recollect reading about any follow up on them and confessed of always being in fear. “This might just happen to me,” Frieda said on The Outlook, which aired Jan. 14.

In another incident, eerily similar to the Dec. 16 one, six men are being held in the rape of a passenger on a bus in Punjab. Local police say the victim was taken  forcibly to an unknown location on Jan. 11 night. The arrests come just weeks after the gang-rape and murder of a woman on a bus in New Delhi sparked nationwide protests. The five suspects charged in last’s month’s gang rape appeared in court Jan. 14.

Pinto, who rose to fame with her role as Latika in “Slumdog Millionaire,” was in India days after the incident. Speaking of the way the incident galvanized the country, Pinto said the “reaction was shocking, but was appropriate and much needed.”

The actress, who has played characters who were sexually exploited – in “Slumdog” and “Trishna,” also admitted to have experienced fear of men in real life. Narrating an incident that her mother experienced while growing up, Pinto said, “You continue living, thinking it won’t be you, and then one day, you are suddenly mocked with such brutality.”

She also pointed out that “denigration of women is a misogynistic society is not unheard of,” and the problem is not only predominant in India, but also in other parts of the world. “We need to keep this fight alive.” Pinto said, adding, “Justice needs to be served.”

Pinto is a ‘Because I am a Girl’ Ambassador,  a global initiative to end gender inequality, promote girls’ rights and lift millions of girls – and everyone around them – out of poverty. Earlier on Jan. 7, television host and model Padma Lakshmi was interviewed on the show. “The New Delhi gang rape attack didn’t surprise me, it disgusted me,’ Lakshmi said on the show. “It brought back to me all of those feelings of when I was walking in Delhi,”Lakshmi said, recounting her experiences of using public transport in New Delhi as a teenager.

However, she hoped that change was on the horizon.

 “I have to be optimistic, as a woman, as an Indian, and I think the Internet and news programs really help.”