Prejudices rob us of our true spirit, which is love: Dia Mirza on ZEE5 Original 'Kaafir' and more

The theme of the web series Kaafir is so powerful that it will transcend all barriers, says its lead actress Dia Mirza, adding that it has been an "incredibly insightful personal journey working on this show".
Mirza said the fact that the Kashmir-set story is inspired by true events, there was a deep sense of curiosity to understand what this entire situation entailed for women and how they got their freedom.

ZEE5 Original Kaafir is based on the life and struggle of a Pakistani woman and her daughter who crossed over to India and are held prisoner. "When I first heard a one-line narration from Siddharth Malhotra (producer of the show), my instantaneous reaction was 'you have to tell the story'. And then of course when I read the script that Bhavani Iyer (the writer) had written, I was blown away by how much humanity there was in the story," she said.

Dia Mirza said the real challenge was to understand how prejudice works. "Because it is such an inward journey and there is so much that one is representative of through the character and the narrative, within the storyline, I think the real challenge was to understand in depth what prejudice does to us as people," she said.

The actor said prejudices create divisions among us. "They fundamentally rob us of our true spirit which is love," she said, adding that the effort was to understand that. "So that meant reading poetry of the Progressive Writers' Movement, especially at the time of Partition, what families went through at the time and what families go through today even in the economic context," Mirza said.

Also starring Mohit Raina, the web series is directed by Sonam Nair. Kaafir is scheduled to be launched on ZEE5 on June 15.