Dia Mirza made her Bollywood debut 25 years ago with ‘Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein’, a film that has since achieved cult status among audiences. But when it was first released, it failed at the box office, followed by her many projects failing despite her performances receiving praise.
In a recent conversation, Dia opened up about being labelled ‘unlucky’ in the industry and how she eventually found a turning point with Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘Sanju’. Looking back at her initial years in Bollywood, Dia said she had to fight preconceived notions about her constantly.
“I feel I managed to defy everybody’s idea of me and create my own. When I started, there were numerous comparisons with Aishwarya Rai. I remember impending access to an opportunity. Then box office failures of my so-called big films - and how it in turn renders you jobless, because people who were otherwise queuing up to sign you suddenly perceive you as a ‘panauti’, bad luck. I have been through all of that.”
Despite the setbacks, she said critics often acknowledged her potential, even when opportunities didn’t follow. “If you go back and read some of the reviews from my first five years in films, you see critics saying ‘deserves more’, ‘underutilised’ and ‘not getting her due’.”
Dia also spoke about stepping away from work at a young age following a personal loss. “I took a sabbatical at the age of 24 when I lost my adoptive father. I was like, ‘Something is wrong here. I am working hard. I am doing my best, but people’s expectations of me aren’t matching what is happening to me’.”
The actress revealed that things began to change after she actively reached out to filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani during the casting of ‘Sanju’. “There has always been this desire to do more, and I think it’s only in the last decade, post ‘Sanju’. I remember the phone call I made to Rajkumar Hirani when he was casting the film. I had already done ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ with him and I said, ‘Please give me work, please. I have no work and I am struggling to find an opportunity to get a foothold. Nobody is giving me jobs. You are doing this film and I promise I will do a screen test. Whatever you want, but please give me the job’.”
“And he said, ‘Let me talk to Ranbir and the rest of the team and get back. There is something which I think you may be good for’. And I played Manyata, Sanjay Dutt’s wife. It was a lifesaver,” she added.
Before ‘Sanju’, Dia had also turned producer with films like ‘Love Breakups Zindagi’ and ‘Bobby Jasoos’. “After I started producing with ‘Love Breakups Zindagi’ followed by ‘Bobby Jasoos’, in which I didn’t cast myself - we cast Vidya Balan - I don’t know what it was. Whether it was a combination of ‘Oh, she is producing films, so she doesn’t want to act’ or that they had other choices, I don’t know. But I wasn’t getting work.”
The success of Sanju, however, changed the trajectory. “‘Sanju’ happened and it gave me a lease of life. Then Siddharth P Malhotra, who is a producer, called me for ‘Kaafir’ - and that really created a huge dimensional shift for me. That part and that story changed my life in so many ways.”