Dia Mirza

Date of Birth : 09 Dec 1981

Place of Birth : Hyderabad, India

Biography :

Dia Mirza, or Diya Mirza Handrich, nicknamed Dee, (born 9 December 1981) is a former Indian model and actress who appears in Bollywood films. She was second runner up at Femina Miss India 2000 and was subsequently sent to Miss Asia Pacific 2000 where she won. Dia Mirza was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. Her father, Frank Handrich, was a German interior designer from Munich and her mother is Deepa, a Bengali Indian. They separated when she was six years old. Her father died when she was nine and her mother remarried Ahmed Mirza who died in 2004. She adopted her stepfather's Muslim surname. She stated that she suffered from "low self-esteem" and severe depression as a child. 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. 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. She is proficient in Telugu, Urdu, Bengali, Hindi, English. She currently resides on Veronica Road, Bandra (West), Mumbai. She made her cinematic debut with Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein opposite R. Madhavan. 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. 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 Aishwarya Rai. Dia was the only female actor among the key 6 characters in the movie Acid Factory. She plays a femme fatale who is also a gangster, in the film. Mirza's car was seized in 2006 for alleged evasion of custom duties. 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.