The year 2000 saw India winning the beauty pageants treble – Priyanka Chopra winning Miss World, Lara Dutta crowned Miss Universe, and Dia Mirza bagging the Miss Asia Pacific International title. While all three were dominant on the pageant stage, their journeys to success followed different paths.
In a recent interview with Zoom, Mirza revealed that neither she nor Dutta had received parental support, as opposed to Chopra’s, whose parents backed her modelling career. She said: “Priyanka still had some support from her parents, but Lara and I didn’t. Lara was already living here because she was modelling, and she had opened her heart to me and shared her apartment, which was the size of a matchbox. I remember helping her pack for her Miss Universe and then she went away."
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"Priyanka was just doing extraordinarily well, almost from the get-go. She had other battles to fight and deal with, and some of those intensified with time. But she was doing really well. I really had awe and respect for it. I remember thinking to myself, 'My God, if I were half the actress she is, how much further I would be able to go,'" the Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein actress recalled.
Mirza also reminisced about surviving on “Wai Wai noodles” with Dutta, saving every penny they earned from modelling, embracing the hard-knock life. “Neither of us used any money from our parents to do anything. Even in Priyanka's situation, she had solid support, and her parents were very involved, but with us, we just had what we had earned and saved. There were days when savings would run out, and payments would be due. We would be sitting in these expensive gowns, coming back from fancy events, and choosing Wai Wai because that’s all we could afford.”
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"We would laugh hysterically. We would be like, 'See bhaade ke kapde, hum kitne glamorous lag rahe hain, lekin bank mein paise nahi hain' (Look at us, sitting in rented clothes, looking glamorous, but with no money in our bank accounts)."
After winning Miss Asia Pacific International, Mirza went on to star in hits like Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge and Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Recently, she starred as Ibrahim Ali Khan’s on-screen mother in his debut film Nadaaniyan.
