Dia Mirza

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Dia Mirza दिया मिर्ज़ा
Born	Dia Mirza Handrich December 9, 1981 (1981-12-09) (age 27) Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Other name(s)	Diya Mirza Diya Dee
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	2001-present
Spouse(s)	None
Official website

Dia Mirza (Hindi: दिया मिर्ज़ा)^[1] or Diya Mirza Handrich,^[2] nicknamed Dee, (born December 9, 1981) is a former Indian model and actress who appears in Bollywood films. She was Miss Asia Pacific for the year 2000 and was also second runner up in the Femina Miss India 2000 beauty pageant.

Contents 1 Personal life and education 2 Career 2.1 Film career 3 Controversies 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Personal life and education

Dia Mirza was born in Hyderabad, India, she is of Bengali/German origin. Her father, Frank Handrich, was a German interior designer from Munich and her mother is Deepa, a Bengali Indian.^[3] They separated when she was six years old. Her father died when she was nine and her mother remarried Ahmed Mirza^[4] who died in 2004.^[5] She retained a Muslim surname (Mirza) from her stepfather, though she herself is a Hindu.^[6] Later she adopted the last name of her birth-father and became Dia Mirza Handrich.

She stated that she suffered from "low self-esteem" and severe depression as a child.^[7] When living in Khairatabad, Hyderabad, she attended Vidyaranya High School For Boys And Girls, a school based on the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, and later Nasr School, in Kushnuma.^[8]

Currently, she lives in Bandra, Mumbai. To brush up on acting before Shootout at Lokhandwala, she took a one week course of Film at New York University.^[9]

[edit] Career

Dia wanted to complete her graduation in Arts by correspondence, but decided to postpone it as it was becoming difficult to juggle between the Miss Asia Pacific Competition, modeling assignments, traveling and training. She was assisted by Sabira Merchant on diction and etiquette; diet with Anjali Mukherjee; gymnasium and physical fitness with Talwalkars; clothes from Ritu Kumar and Hemant Trivedi; skin care with Dr. Jamuna Pai; and make-up and hair-care from Bharat and Doris Godambe.^[10] She is proficient in Urdu, Bengali, Hindi, English.^[11] She currently resides on Veronica Road, Bandra (West), Mumbai.^[12]

[edit] Film career

She made her cinematic debut with Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein opposite R. Madhavan.^[13] The film was not a box office success. A series of unsuccessful films followed, among them Tumsa Nahin Dekha and Deewaanapan.

In 2005, Mirza appeared in Parineeta, a Vidhu Vinod Chopra production. She also played in the music video Kajara Mohabbat Wala alongside Sonu Nigam from the album Kajara Nite. The album contained multiple remixes, but was mainly advertised with the title song, sang by Sonu Nigam and Alisha Chinai.^[14]

She has also appeared in the movie Dus and in Fight Club. She will appear later this year in Familywala and Naa Naa Karte.Early in her career she was tagged as a look-alike of Aishwaraya Rai.

[edit] Controversies

Mirza's car was seized in 2006 for alleged evasion of custom duties.^[15] In that same year, she and fellow-actor Aamir Khan publicly expressed support for the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a group protesting the building of a dam. This aroused the ire of political activists from the Bharatiya Janata Party, who led a protest march against the actress:^[16]

[edit] Filmography