Mar 12, 2025 07:49 AM IST
Dia Mirza has spoken about her career and comparisons with the co-finalists of Miss India 2000 – Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta.
The year 2000 was a watershed for Indian pageantry. All three Miss India finalists went on to win international crowns that year. Lara Dutta was crowned Miss Universe,Priyanka Chopra won Miss World, and Dia Mirza completed the hat-trick with the Miss Asia Pacific title. Naturally, there were comparisons. In a recent interview, Dia addressed those comparisons and emphasised how the three of them managed to carve out individual, distinct paths as actors. (Also read: Priyanka Chopra’s mother says she traumatized her with boarding school: ‘Usko mentally prepare nahi kiya’)
Dia Mirza on comparisons with Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka was still a teenager then, while Dia and Lara were in their early 20s. Highlighting how their starts were different, Dia told Zoom, “Priyanka still had some support from her parents, but Lara and I didn’t. Lara was already living here because she was modelling and she had opened her heart to me and shared her apartment, which was the size of a matchbox. I remember helping her pack for her Miss Universe and going away. Priyanka was just doing extraordinarily well, almost from the get-go. She had other battles to fight and deal with, and some of those intensified with time. But she was doing really well. I really had awe and respect for it. I remember thinking to myself, ‘My God, if I was half the actress she is, how much further I would be able to go’.”
Dia emphasised on how the financial situation was often dire for her and Lara, living in Mumbai and making ends meet on their own. “We (Lara and I) shared Wai Wai noodles because paise nahi the (we had no money). Lara and I modelled and saved that money. Neither of us used any money from our parents to do anything. Even in Priyanka’s situation, she had solid support, and her parents were very involved, but with us, we just had what we had earned and saved. There’d be days when savings would run out, and payments would be due. We would be sitting in these expensive gowns coming back from fancy events and choosing Wai Wai because that’s all we could afford,” the actor recalled.
Dia said that eventually Lara and Priyanka found acting success with Andaz even as she herself was struggling. But she added that over time, they each found their space, and the comparisons stopped.
Dia Mirza’s recent work
Dia was most recently seen in Nadaaniyan, in which she played Ibrahim Ali Khan’s mother. The film, which marked Ibrahim’s acting debut, also starred Khushi Kapoor, Mahima Chaudhry, Suniel Shetty, and Jugal Hansraj. The film was released on Netflix on March 7 to largely negative reviews.
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