Dia Mirza recalls working as an extra on a film to fund her FIRST modeling portfolio – Exclusive! – Times of India

Despite winning international recognition, making it big in Bollywood was no cake walk for Dia Mirza. The actress made men go weak in the knees with her performance in ‘Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein’, but before signing her first film, Dia went through a long drawn struggle.

She worked as a background dancer in the song ‘Jumbalakka’, from Tamil film ‘En Swasa Kaatre’. Recalling the same, Dia told ETimes, “I played as what they call an extra in a song. It made me enough money to go and shoot my first professional portfolio.” Speaking about the experience, Dia added, “We shot for the song in Ramoji Rao Film City. I was there with 4-5 friends and we had a great time. Raju Sundaram was dancing, Mink was part of the song, it was a great experience. And we earned good money so that we could go back and do the things that we wanted to do.”

Dia Mirza also revealed details about her first music video, which she shot for at the age of 15. “It was composed by M M Keeravani. We shot the video entirely in Hyderabad. I have been looking for the song on YouTube,” shared Dia.

Beyond the music numbers, Dia went on to deliver hits like ‘Parineeta’, ‘Dus’, ‘’Lage Raho Munna Bhai’, ‘Sanju’ and ‘Thappad’ to name a few.