Dia Mirza’s Bengali connection

Actress Dia Mirza may not be seen taking up too much work in Bollywood, but she will soon be seen in a Bengali film. Ask her what made her take up the film and she reveals, “The director, Pratim Gupta, is a film critic from Kolkata and I’ve known him for eight years now. What started as a professional relationship, developed further and he always maintained that if he made a film, I’d be in it. He always passed on whatever he wrote for me to read. My mom is also a Bengali, so I’m fond of Bengali films… I think it all just fell in place eventually. But the weight in the script was the prime reason.” The film, Paanch Adhyay will see her play a school teacher. Did the role take her back to her school days?

“Of course! In fact, being a teacher was one of the many things I aspired to become when I was a kid. Teachers play such an important role in one’s life. I have lots of good memories and some of my teachers’ advice, with regards to life and such, is still stuck in my head. I wonder if they (teachers) know what an important role they play in a child’s life,” she says. Talking about her character in the film, Dia says that in a nutshell, it’s complex.

“It’s a relationship-centric film, so it has several layers to it. For the first time in my career, I’m playing a role that will see me go from being a young girl to an older woman,” she states.