Dia Mirza: 'Motherhood has been transformative for me in so many ways"

Actress-producer Dia Mirza has no big plans for Mother's Day 2022 , but she thinks a mom-child bond is a form of love that is not possible to experience in any other relationship. Dia and her husband Vaibhav Rekhi welcomed a baby boy on 14 May last year, and she is looking forward to Mother’s Day which will be observed on 8 May. “I have no plans. Hopefully, the kids do. Samaira (her stepdaughter) seems to have a plan. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll find out,” she says. As for her mother, Dia thinks she has already “given her the best gift I could have ever given her.” The Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein actress feels that there should never be a day when people don’t appreciate what their mothers do. “So I have deep gratitude (for mom) every single day,” she tells Firstpost. Being a mother has been “transformative in so many ways” for her. “It’s so fulfilling. It’s magic and I think that this is a form of love that is not possible to experience in any other relationship. I am so grateful to be a mother,” says the former beauty queen. Her son, Avyaan Azaad, was born premature and was taken care of at a hospital for about four months. “I think what kept me sane was of course the support that I had from my husband and family,” she recalls. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, she couldn’t meet her little one whenever she wanted. “It was really tough. The first time I got to hold my child was when he was about two and a half months old. That was really hard, but we survived,” she shares. Now he is happy and healthy, and will soon turn one. But Dia isn’t planning a birthday bash for the child. “No one-year-old enjoys his or her first birthday. It can be quite traumatic for babies. You know being surrounded by so many people amid so much fuss. The baby can’t even blow out the candles or cut the cake, so it makes no sense. Perhaps, we will do a bit of pooja at home,” she shares. Going by his photos and videos on Instagram, the boy is already enjoying interacting with nature.

According to the actress, who is also a champion for the environment, engaging and interacting with nature is fundamental to a healthy childhood. “That is something I do very consciously. It’s wonderful to see how responsive he is. He is so gleeful and happy when he sees birds, butterflies and flowers,” she says. But as a mother, she doesn’t want to impose any of her ideas, desires or aspirations from life onto him. “He needs to find his own story. I hope I raise a good citizen of the planet. I hope I can raise a compassionate, empathetic and kind citizen of the planet,” says the actress, who believes that cinema storytelling is a powerful instrument for social change. In the web series Kaafir, she essayed the role of a mother, and she won’t mind acting as a mom on-screen again. “This has never been a thing with me. I am open to playing all kinds of parts. Honest truth is that I am at an age and stage of life where the probability of getting roles of a parent is higher. It doesn’t mean that the story is about you being a parent. It should be about you doing anything,” she says. Her love for acting is still alive even though she made her debut more than two decades ago, but there is one thing she would like to change about the Hindi film industry. “I know some male actors who have children aged 18, 19 or 20 in their real life, but don’t want to play a father to a 20-year-old on-screen. I think there is a lot of stereotype that is being enforced in a story and in the choices we make as individuals. I think it’s about time we break free from those stereotypes,” she says. “As far as the older men playing younger parts opposite even younger girls, people work in those films and people like watching those movies, and everybody is happy, so what can one really say,” she adds. Mirza notes that people play their age in films in other parts of the world except for India because ageism is a thing. According to her, in India people connect beauty and everything with age. “Not much is going to change unless we start dispelling those notions. One of the things that people think is a compliment is that when they meet me they say, ‘oh my god! you don’t look like a mother.’ Now I have no idea what a person is supposed to look like after delivering a child. The assumption is that you should have gained certain amount of weight, and if you haven’t then that’s just bizarre,” she shares. As of now, she is enjoying motherhood and also balancing it with her work. “There’s a subject that I am deeply interested in. It is still under development,” she shares about her next production venture. Meanwhile, she has a few OTT projects as well as filmmaker Anubhav Sinha’s film titled Bheed in her kitty.

Natalia Ningthoujam is a Manipur-based journalist. She knows how to smoothly switch from being a fan to a writer whenever needed. She tweets at @nattynick.

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