Hyderabad: Former beauty pageant and the ethereal actress Dia Mirza is celebrating her 39th birthday today. The actor was crowned Miss Asia Pacific in 2000 and made her Bollywood film debut opposite R Madhavan in Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein in the year 2001.
Dia Mirza, who is also an environmental activist, was just 18-years old back then when she made the country proud after having won the coveted crown of Miss Asia Pacific.
The actress has appeared in many movies to date most of which have been well-received by the audience. She was last seen in the Taapsee Pannu starrer Thappad in which she played a pivotal role.
On her special day, we have bought you an unknown fact about Dia Mirza which might amaze you. Do you know how did Dia Mirza get her surname ‘Mirza’?
Dia Mirza opened up on her surname
In an old interview with Times Of India in 2015, Dia Mirza opened up about her family and how she got her surname. When she was asked whether she is a Muslim since she adds ‘Mirza’ to her name, she said that she got it from her stepfather who was a Muslim from Hyderabad. Dia Mirza also added that he passed away in 2003.
Speaking about her family, Dia Mirza said, “I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. While my father was German, my mother is Bengali. My father was a German architect and graphic designer, who traveled all over the world, teaching teachers how to teach. On one such visit to the Max Mueller Bhavan in Delhi, he met my mother. Interestingly, my mother had taken German as a foreign language to study, so she could speak and read and write the language fluently.”
“They had a whirlwind romance and they got married and I was born as a much-desired child. When I was just four-and-a-half, my parents separated, and both my parents remarried. But my first father passed away when I was just nine,” she added.
“I hate calling my second father my step-father as he is not my biological father, but he was wonderful, was a fantastic parent who did not try and take my father’s place and he too passed away in 2003. He was a Muslim from Hyderabad and I took my surname Mirza from him,” Dia Mirza told TOI.
Speaking about her attachment with a stepfather, she said, “I got really attached to him only much later while I was in my teens and that attachment was born from a deep respect for him. He never tried to take the place of my father, but only tried to form his independent relationship with me.”
Dia Mirza concluded by adding that the nameplate of her Mumbai house reads ‘Mirza’.