Dia Mirza recalls comparisons with Aishwarya Rai, reveals she wore light-coloured lenses to ‘conform’ to beauty standards: ‘It was ridiculous’

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“Because of that, I was expected to be as refined as she was and match her beauty standards. However, I soon learned that you don’t have to be light-eyed and light-skinned to be perceived as beautiful. You can be yourself entirely and still be beautiful,” she pointed out. Elaborating on the industry’s obsession with fair skin, Dia recounted how she, too, was caught in that mindset at the start of her career. “For the first 3-4 years of my career, I wore light-coloured lenses in all my films. It was ridiculous because I was desperately trying to conform to their idea of beauty. It was also bizarre that despite having won an international beauty title, I was not comfortable with who I was,” she noted.

Dia also recalled undergoing brownfacing in Mahesh Manjrekar’s black comedy Praan Jaye Par Shaan Na Jaye (2003), stating that she gags when she sees it now. “It was a very unique film. I played a character who is perceived as ‘not beautiful’ by society and I remember them darkening my skin for the part. And the colour of my eyes was kept brown as they are. Then, when the transformation happened, with the duckling turning into a swan, I was wearing light grey lenses and the colour of my skin changed. I cringe seeing those shots today. There’s a lot there that was really messed up and I didn’t have the maturity or the understanding to see through them at that time,” she added.

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The actor also shared that if she were offered the role of Reena Malhotra in Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein today, she would approach it differently. “I’d keep her more real in terms of the way she looked. I wouldn’t wear the kind of clothes she wore in the film. I would neither wear that kind of makeup nor those coloured lenses. I would actually keep Reena as real as she was in the South Indian version of the movie. I would perform it with a little more maturity,” she added. Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein was a remake of Menon’s debut film Minnale, wherein Reema Sen played the female lead.