Dia Mirza shares her experiences of sexism and objectification: “You were more window dressing, a function of a bigger plan, an accessory”

Dia Mirza, with a career spanning over twenty years in the Hindi film industry, admits she feels "embarrassed" by her early performances. During that period, she was still discovering her voice and trying to carve out a place in an industry that often did not regard female actors as intellectually capable.

Dia made her debut in Bollywood with Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein in 2001 and subsequently appeared in several mid-sized films. These roles primarily kept her visible on screen but did not significantly advance her career.

In an interview with Indianexpress.com, Dia stated, “Oh my God, I am embarrassed! I truly am. There was something there, but I was struggling to even find my own voice. I wasn’t clear who I was.” The actor, who currently acts in the Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, claimed she began working at an early age and had no formal acting school, so she learnt most of her skills on the job.

She added, “At the time I came to the film business, there was no method to the madness. Scenes would be stuck under our noses, minutes before we had to perform them. There was no preparatory process. Also, women weren’t accorded intelligence. You weren’t treated as entities who had the capacity to think, and therefore feel and thereby respond. You were more window dressing, a function of a bigger plan, an accessory. I remember this thing as a joke, it was deeply offending when I think about it now, but I had laughed it off, when I said no to a film and was told, ‘How can you say no to the film? It is with a superstar, and it has six songs in it!”

Dia began transitioning in the second half of the last decade, when she played larger roles in films such as Rajkumar Hirani's Sanju, Anubhav Sinha's Thappad, Taapse Pannu's Dhak Dhak, and her own program Kaafir. If grittier jobs did not come her way, the former Miss India claimed it was because of her appearance.

She said, “You are also stereotyped because of the way you look. So, I may not look like I belong in an Anurag Kashyap film, but my mind and heart belong in an Anurag Kashyap film! The larger point being, it takes time to shed the baggage that the industry awards you with. I am much more than this and am going to push myself.”

She further added, “In my 20s if you had told me that I would play some of the most exciting parts in my 40s, I would have never believed you. I do feel I am in a sweet spot right now, because I have the privilege to say no to something I don’t believe in and fortunately enough, the people I respect, are finding me. Do I still feel I am underutilised? One hundred percent yes, that’s the greedy artiste in me. Hopefully that will never be satiated.”

On the work front, She is currently seen in Anubhav Sinha's IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, which stars actors Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Varma, Patralekhaa, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, and Pooja Gor.

Also Read : Dia Mirza celebrates 23rd anniversary of Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein re-release with Heartfelt tribute

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