Dia Mirza on her early days in Bollywood: ‘People were making sexist cinema and I was a part of these stories’

Bollywood actor Dia Mirza made her debut in motion pictures with the 2001 movie Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, and her journey within the leisure trade has had a number of ups and downs. In an interview with Brut India, the actor opened up about her early days within the movie trade and the rampant sexism that existed these days.
Dia mentioned, “People were writing, thinking and making sexist cinema, and I was a part of these stories. Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein has sexism in it.” She additionally gave an instance stating that in these instances, a make-up artist may solely be a person, and the job of a hairdresser may solely be finished by a girl.
She continued, “When I started working in films, there were at best only 4 or 5 women on any given film crew with a unit strength of over 120, sometimes 180 people. There would just never be any female representation on a film crew, so the gender ratio was skewed. Nobody really cared about it. We live in a patriarchal society, and it is an industry that is largely led by men. So there is rampant sexism. And I think for a large part, it is not even conscious sexism because there are so many men who are writers, who are directors, who are actors, who are not even aware of their sexist thinking.”

“I am sure things have improved now because there’s been just so much advocacy work and an improved understanding of what patriarchy is and what sexism is that people know better now,” the actor shared.
Dia Mirza additionally spoke about her selections in these early days and the way they had been pushed fully by intuition. “I had no mentor and no one who could guide me or help me understand how to go about consolidating my choices or even making the right choices. I kind of completely and solely depended on instinct and my managers at the time,” she mentioned.