Dia Mirza
Dia Mirza was born on 9th December in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Born to a Bengali mother, Deepa, and a German father, Frank Handrich, she grew up imbibing the value of different world views.
Having studied at J Krishnamurti School, where students get educated not by rote, but by resolute guidance to be free of social conditioning, Dia learnt to explore her many different facets from a young age. From being an assiduous reader to painting, dabbling in professional photography to adventure sports, she took to it all.
She valued financial independence and so she worked towards it from a relatively early age of 16 while continuing her education. With her looks, advertisement offers started pouring in. Shooting for known brands like Lipton and Walls Ice Cream gave her the confidence to dive deeper and participate in a beauty pageant that would go on to transform her fate.
Armed with the winning combination of beauty with brains, Dia stormed through the Miss India Contest and thereafter the Miss Asia-Pacific Pageant, winning the coveted title for India, after a wait of 29 long years.