subject: Diya Mirza - Femina Miss India Turned Bollywood Actress [print this page] She was born as Dia Handrich in 1981 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh to father Frank Handrich, a German interior designer from Munich, and mother Deepa, a Bengali interior designer. Diya parents separated when she was six.
Her father died when she was nine. Deepa later married Ahmed Mirza. She adopted her stepfather surname, Mirza. Ahmed Mirza died in the year 2004. Her, while living at Khairatabad, Hyderabad, did her schooling from Vidyaranya High School for Boys and Girls, and later Nasr School in Kushnuma.
Diya started working at the age of 16 as a marketing executive at Sriven Multtech in Hyderabad. She ventured into the world of modelling with assignments for various brands such as Walls, Lipton, Emami etc., She was encouraged to participate in the Miss India pageant. And she did participate.
She was the second runner up at Femina Miss India, 2000 and subsequently went on to be crowned Miss Asia Pacific 2000 held on 2n December, 2000 in Manila, Philippines. She became the second Indian to win this award after a gap of 29 years. She also was awarded Miss Beautiful Smile, 2000.
Diya completed her graduation in Arts via correspondence as she was busy juggling the Miss Asia Pacific Competition, modeling assignments, traveling and training. Her prestigious Miss AsiaPacific pageant flooded her with film offers. And just before her debut film, she went through one week acting crash course at New York University.
Diya mirza debuted with the film rehnaa hai terre dil mein (2001) in the year 2001 opposite tamil actor r madhavan and saif ali khan. The film was directed by gautham menon and produced by vashu bhagnani. It Was A Remake Of The Tamil Film Minnale.
It Was A Romantic Drama Where Diya Played The Role Of Reena Malhotra Who Was Deceived By An Imposter, Maddy (Madhavan), Claiming To Be Her Friend, Rajiv, From America. The film when released did not do well at the box office, but over the years the film gained a cult following among the indian youth. With the film, diya had marked her arrival in bollywood.
In 2008 diya starred in krazzy 4 (2008) with a small role. The film failed, apart from that, diya had no other release in 2008. In the year 2009, diya had 6 movies including two special appearances in zoya akhtar luck by chance (2009) and dharma productions kurbaan (2009). In sanjay gupta acid factory (2009), directed by suparn verma, diya was cast alongside a plethora of actors: fardeen khan, danny denzongpa, irrfan khan, manoj bajpai, dino morea and aftab shivdasani.
The film was a paranoid thriller in which diya played a femme fatale gangster. The film failed miserably at the box office. Diya new decade in bollywood, did not really start on a bright note. In 2010, she was cast opposite arshad warsi as his girlfriend in hum tum aur ghost (2010), along with boman irani as the ghost.
Produced by arshad warsi and directed by kabeer kaushik, the film failed commercially and critically as well. Diya mirza recently adopted the last name of her biological father, handrich.
Her full name is nowdia mirza handrich. Diya enjoys reading english classics, writing, painting, etc. She has also written numerous articles for various publications as a guest writer.
She is actively involved in social service; helping cancer patients, spreading hiv awareness, facilitating prevention of female foeticide, involvement in organizations like PETA and CRY.
In may 2006, diya had dragged herself into a controversy when actor aamir khan, had publicly expressed her support for the narmada bachao andolan; opposing the construction of the dam, sardar sarovar project, which would have displaced thousands of people. This led to the bharatiya janata party leaders leading a protest march against diya (and aamir as well).
