DAZZLING DIYA

By Fuad Omar.

Diya Mirza is a lady who needs no introduction. In a short span of time this young beauty dazzled at the Femina Miss India contest, conquered the Miss Asia Pacific crown and made her foray into the film world, all within a few months. After delivering two films which were completed at breakneck speed and smiling through an acceptance that has crossed India and Europe, making her one of the most recognized faces of recent times, she has firmly pinned her name on the map through sheer hard work and dedication.

Diya is someone whose genuinity and kindness comes across in a single meeting. The first time I met her she gave me the warmest and most reassuring welcome I could ever receive, and immediately noticed how this child-like sweet person spoke every word from her heart, with soft eyes reflecting her sincerity. I could write reams about Diya because there are so many observations any writer can absorb from her presence alone, and so many wonderful qualities, but then I’d never begin the interview. Warning her in advance that my sessions usually end up becoming ‘inner-viewz’, we sit comfortably at her place in Bandra and she reflects on the past few months as I set out to convey through this article, a glimpse of the young beauty who has Indian cinema in a buzz not seen for a long while.

Given I am about to ask her the first question of my first interview with her, I ask her to begin at the beginning, but not in the usual way. I ask the youthful soul to go back in her mind to the time when she was a little girl and what she wanted to be.

“I think the first thing I ever wanted to be was a teacher,” she says in a soft tone, her eyes fixed on mine as she reminisces.

“I remember going back from school and shutting my room door and play acting that I was a teacher teaching these imaginary children. That’s how I used to do my homework, by imagining I was teaching and actually learning it while playing. So my earliest memory is of wanting to be a teacher, then it grew into wanting to be a lawyer who fought for children…as I grew more rebellious! Then it changed to wanting to be a child psychologist and then back to wanting to be a lawyer and then Miss India happened. Suddenly I found myself doing something I had never imagined wanting to do.”

Children. The word appears not only in every sentence but also holds as much significance in her life as her aspirations reflect always being geared towards them. I have mentioned how Diya herself is like a child in a fun and honest, yet intelligent way, and so it’s only fitting she feels such a strong bond with them and has since her earliest memory wanted her life to have some fellowship with helping them, because the innocent purity of a child remains within her. A piece of the puzzle slowly twists and fits, as she allows me a step closer to unraveling the enigma that is Diya Mirza.

“I think children are wonderful,” she says narrowing her eyes in thought before continuing. “But I also know that some children can cause other children a lot of pain, and that’s not something that comes from within them but is something that they grow up with or have been afflicted by. It’s like if you don’t come from a very happy family, you tend to take that frustration out on a kid at school and it always ends up that the bigger boys bully the smaller ones and the bigger girls bully the little and more sensitive and vulnerable ones, and I was that little girl in school. I really got bullied and pushed around a bit and was a very unhappy child at school. I used to hate it. One day I picked myself up and said ‘Why is this happening? Why am I letting these people bully me?. I used to lose at every race, although I was a very sporty girl. I would play cricket and football and basketball and lose every time, until one day when I think I was in the sixth grade and I asked myself ‘Why can I not win?’ and it was like a realisation and a decision for myself in my mind that enough was enough: Now is the time for me to win. Not because it’s imperative but because I wanted to prove something to myself. I wanted to go home feeling happy, and that I had lots of friends who admire me and I made it happen. I started winning every race I ran, I became the captain of the basketball team and had real fun and suddenly realised I had a lot more friends, because the world is like that. People tend to cling to achievers and stay away from lesser achievers, which is very sad, but it’s something I realised at a very early stage of my life when I was probably ten or eleven. I realized that ninety percent of children feel like that because their parents instill in their head that you become what you are by the company you keep. And that’s why I think children stick with kids who are supposed to be ‘cool’ and stay away from others who are supposed to be ‘not cool’.”

As she speaks she emphasises each word and steals glances of sincerity. When she looks at me and says these things, I see where they are coming from. There is a saying and belief that the eyes are a window to the soul. If this is so, the purity of her soul shines through with her every word at this moment, as she describes the harsh reality and kinship she feels with the children.

“There was this one boy in my class with these thick glasses who was so intelligent we called him the walking-talking encyclopedia, but every kid in the class stayed away from him except from one boy who was his best friend and still is today, just because he knew a lot more than any of us did. It really makes you wonder what keeps people together, what is it that keeps kids together? And that’s why I think I wanted to do child psychology because at an early age I started looking, understanding and wondering ‘why’, but was always afraid to speak it out in school because then you would be ‘weird’ for thinking so much! I guess that’s where the whole thing about wanting to be a lawyer and child psychologist came from.”

Her inquisitiveness remains and she constantly asks herself questions others probably don’t even think about. This leads to her having a broader view and reasoning, and has contributed to her intelligence with which she speaks and the understanding that she has, because if you don’t ask yourself questions, you’ll never know the answers, nor your ‘self’. This is the smart girl who has been unaffected by those who seek justification for their own fabricated stories, in attempts to push her in a corner. But what’s fast emerging is they have underestimated the strength and intelligence of Diya Mirza.

Since she has mentioned a realisation and a journey of discovery, I ask about the reality that is films and the world she was thrown in when she began shooting. Anyone who has been on film sets will know the hours of preparation and hard work that goes into making what is a 2 second footage on screen, and also with this so-called glamorous life comes the demand on time. Shoots can last up to eighteen hours or more, and I ask what it was like when she went from winning the Miss Asia Pacific title to films, and forayed into a world where all of a sudden she was expected to work long hours and literally give her life to the films she had signed on, an adjustment that is a shock to many who view the life of an actress as easy and glamorous.

“I was complaining,” she says nodding her head, swallowing the lump in her throat as she agrees on the common misperception of the ‘good life’. “I used to ask ‘but why do we have to do this? And ‘why is it so late?’ and then I said ‘Why am I complaining? I put myself in this situation; no one forced me to come here. I wanted to do this’. I remember telling my cameraman when we were shooting on an outdoor and I was wearing hardly anything in the freezing cold, and I said ‘You know all of you wearing jackets so you can stand around calling the shots, well I’m going through hell right now!’ and he looked at me and said ‘exchange your cheque with ours and we’ll stand there for you’.  And that’s a very harsh reality and I realised what is it that I’m getting paid for. It’s not easy being an actress, because it’s not just acting but everything else that goes along with it which is what we get paid for. And I’m glad that I realised that at such an early stage, because there’s no point cribbing and complaining about something you yourself have decided to do. The day I realised that, there was no stopping me and I started loving it. It’s what I’ve chosen to do.”

As someone who makes the most of whatever life tosses her way, she has certainly made the most of the journey in life from a beauty queen to a film actress who chooses to carry each experience with her and learn from it, being surprised along the way by every pot of gold she finds at the end of some of the paths. So I ask what it was like seeing her hoardings tower over Mumbai for the very first time, being magnified for all to look up to, ensuring her face was unmistakably imprinted in the public’s mind. Her eyes dart away from me for a second, as though looking for words to describe what is now appearing to be an emotional memory, given the look on her face. A split second later she finds those words and looks at me once more, drawing in a deep breath before saying:

“It is the most overwhelming thing to see yourself like that, as in so much larger than life, staring down at you. I saw myself there and it was a fabulous picture on the hoarding and I remember saying in my heart ‘God, this is so beautiful. Thank you!’,”.

She takes a moment to draw another breath, the now clearly visible smile on her lips seeking solace in her now-widened eyes, as memory delights her. She once more looks up and softly continues remembering her conversation with God, “I don’t know if this is what I’ve always wanted to do and I don’t know if this is where I’m going to stay, but whatever this is…it’s lovely. Thank You.”

She reminds me of the way people came into Cineworld Feltham pointing and smiling at the posters of her debut movie Rehna Hai Terre Dil Mein and her latest Deewanapan, acknowledging the exciting new face, and whereas we may not have hoardings in London, the response of the people is the same: One of complete appreciation of the effort gone into the product on screen.

“More than the money, more than the fame and the glamour, the reward for me is when your product, your baby is out there for the audiences to watch, and how they react and how they take to you, that is the best part. I think my humbling experience was when I watched my movie in the theatre with the audience and I realized they’ve accepted me.”

Diya stares into space for a second, cherishing the moment that will forever linger with her every time someone reminds her of when she first saw her film. She shakes her head slightly and smiles, unable to contain the joy of that feeling and elated with where she is and what’s happened. Again, like a child, she is honest with her emotions, smiling genuinely when she’s happy and frowning when she’s not, and the look on her face is of complete nirvana.

“Since I’m here I want to make a point,” she says when I ask what her current goal is. “And make a point not to anybody, but to myself. That only means that I’m looking forward to some great work and working with some great people, and hopefully at the end of it all, they will remember me as a good actress and somebody they really loved working with.”

We move to a topic that is one of the darker by-products of the film industry: film journalism and in particular, gossip articles and yellow journalism. Diya was indeed touted as the most promising newcomer and the next big thing before her film was released and the very people who put her up on a pedestal then decided to shred her to pieces through their articles and her image was maligned, viciously attacked through false rumours and idle gossip. This was her first experience with the fourth estate of the film industry that is fast being isolated and rejected by the world media, giving a once-respected profession a bad name and heading on a self destructive path where it destroys the very product which it spawned.

“When I first came into the industry, I think I was the most written about newcomer and people absolutely loved Diya Mirza. She was the sweetest thing, and not only a super achiever but a wonderful human being, she was a surprise package, she was this and that. I was very naïve when I walked into the industry because I had no clue how harsh these people can be. Everyone was sweet and I was really happy to be here and then…reality struck. I started seeing myself being linked up with people and it got me wondering why. Either it was with a co-star I was working with or with my producers and I thought ‘why is this happening?’,” she says with a look of hurt in her eyes, mingled with anger.

“I looked into it and realized it’s probably because I’m a single working girl and these people are so desperate to see me with a man that they were just hoping it would be one of them! Eventually it got worse and it affected my friends and family and I started getting calls asking ‘I just read this about you, is it true?’ and I became very upset with the people who had written those things. Because all of a sudden, people who had trusted me always were ringing me up and asking me questions about things they would never imagine me to do. I may not have been affected by all this, but my friends were. I don’t live in Hyderabad anymore but my friends do and they read these magazines and it leaves a very tarnished image of mine in their minds, and that’s sad because that’s not the real me. And no journalist will ever take responsibility for what they write and this is very, very, very sad. Ink on paper lasts forever. Paper is the most patient thing in the world because it can take and bare and live and die, so why misuse it? It’s very sad people don’t realise this because every journalist has a gift to create and recreate and glorify, and they don’t realise it. I think the gift of being able to put your thoughts down on paper is among the most wonderful things anyone can be given and it’s a shame people misuse it.”

I must say that Diya is like a child because she’s fun, honest, extremely caring and genuine and can come out with the most funny expressions I’ve ever seen, but she’s no pushover. She has been hurt by placing her trust in people who have betrayed her, but she is strong. It is this strength I see in her eyes as she tells me of how tired she is of doing interviews that ask her to justify or clarify actions she’s accused of by the very people who seek to interview her. She’s barely been in the industry for a few months and has three releases in her first year to her credit and has already experienced the up and downside of 'filmi' journalism. Before moving on, I send a silent prayer her way, hoping the gossip mongers and negative people that hound her stay away, because this warm and hard working person is having the echoes of applause and acceptance that ring throughout the world for her, being drowned out by a sea of criticism and gossip from those who claim to be a crucial part of the industry.

Wanting to end the interview with a totally different question I ask which of the following she’d do and why:  Have the ability to fly for a day, be invisible for a day or go back in time for a day and relive any day of the past. Beaming at me, she excitedly says “Can I do all of them!” and then goes on to let me know why she’s spoilt for choice where these options are concerned.

“I’d like to do all three. I’d love to fly and flutter about and see things from above and another perspective. I’d like to be invisible because then you can see without people knowing, and I’d go on my sets,” she says laughing mischievously.

“As for going back in time I’d go back to my fifth birthday because that was very special to me.”

As we wrap up the interview on a smile, I ask her when she’ll be in London to see her UK fans and those who have supported her and want to meet her so they can pass on directly the affection they convey when they go see her films or write in to publications asking for more on her.

“I’m looking forward to taking some time off sometime in January and hopefully coming down for a day or two,” she says as I cross my fingers tightly.

She asks me to thank the UK fans and all those reading, for their support and warmth towards her and it is received with much appreciation. As we end the interview, she smiles and asks if I want anything to eat. Diya Mirza has entered the limelight and in a short span of time has made a glowing mark that will soon light up the night sky. She constantly reminds me of a child in what she talks and cares about, as well her good, pure heart and now this child is entertaining children everywhere through her chosen career. As I said at the beginning of the interview, I could write reams about Diya because there is so much to her, but for now this ‘inner view’ will do as a glimpse into someone who is destined for a future so bright it blinds the eyes of all who are trying to pull her down.