First Bengali film for Dia Mirza

MUMBAI: Dia Mirza is currently busy with her first-ever regional language film — a Bengali movie titled Paanch Adhyay. “Bangla is my ‘mother’ tongue because my mother is Bengali. So, I have grown up speaking a bit of Bangla at home. But doing a film in the language is a different experience,” says Dia.

Directed by journalist-filmmaker Pratim Dasgupta, the film is being dubbed as an “intense” one. “Pratim was telling me for years that he was working on a script. And when he finished it, he called me and said, ‘I would like you to read the script.’ It’s a beautiful and tender story,” she says.

Dia admits she was terrified prior to her shoot in Kolkata despite the fact that she wasn’t a stranger to Bangla. “I was worried about how I would deliver my lines, dialect etc. But now I can safely say it’s as comfortable as Hindi,” she says. “It’s exciting and surreal. We have been shooting in the older lanes of the city. So, there’s a lot of history that surrounds you.”

The actor calls this “the new adhyay (chapter) in my career.” Ask if preparations were tough and Dia says: “I ensured I got the script in advance and even though I was busy with the release of Love Breakups Zindagi, I practiced my lines like a student preparing for an exam.”

Next, Dia says she will do a Telugu film: “I made the promise because I got a barrage of queries once I announced that I am doing a Bangla film. Cinema shouldn’t be divided by the language.”

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