LOVE ME TENDER: Dia’s personal life has devoured much newsprint, be it her link-ups with the married Sanjay Gupta and Arshad Warsi or bachelors Kunal Kapoor and Apoorva Lakhia. Presently, B-town is abuzz with rumours of her dating her director and business partner Sahil. I have to know whether there’s any truth there. Smiling from ear to ear, she says, “I am seeing Sahil. It’s hilarious because my executive producer just a few weeks ago told me, ‘Today, in the meeting I realised that you and Sahil are dating.’ I asked her, ‘You’ve been on the film for so long and you didn’t pick this up before?’ I guess it was just the most natural thing to have happened. I instinctively gravitated towards Sahil.” She continues, “I don’t think he ever thought we’d be together. Initially, his entire need to communicate was professional. He was quite taken aback when he realised I had fallen for him.”
Dia doesn’t think mixing love and career is wrong. She says they never carry their relationship to work. “Sahil was busy as the director of the film. He’d be so absorbed in the shooting that I’d sulk once in a while when he didn’t ask me how I was doing on a particular day. But I did that in my private time. In life, at different times there are different roles we need to play. And partners should understand and respect the demands of that role.”
PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW: The best thing about her, she says, is that she doesn’t hold grudges and carries no baggage. Just like a child, she is easily distracted and gets over things fast. “I was dating Apoorva Lakhia. Apu is much older than I am. I’m not saying that an older person and a younger person can’t make it. I’m sure they can. My mother was very unhappy that I was dating an older man. It was a combination of family pressure and not being sure if we would make it that caused our breakup. I was also insecure given his past and his charm.”
There are also a lot of rumours she thinks you need to ignore in this business. She calls herself old-fashioned because she doesn’t believe in having flings or affairs with married men. “The link-ups with Arshad Warsi and Sanjay Gupta were irritating. That I was seeing Sanjay was the most ridiculous thing ever. I know there has been a history of him being linked with his heroines but that doesn’t mean everyone who works with him will have an affair with him.”
The gossip about Dia and Arshad during the filming of You Me Aur Ghost strained her relationship with Arshad and his family. “Like all married couples Arshad and Maria were having their ups and downs and the stories just instigated an unnecessary situation. It was really unfair to all of us at that time.”
ZINDAGI: She has been in the in the industry for over a decade now but has yet to make her mark. In fact, after Tumsa Nahi Dhekha (2004) we saw her after a huge gap as the lead in Hum Tum Aur Ghost (2010). She explains, “That’s because my films have not worked. It’s as simple as that. The industry functions on economics and I don’t blame them. But the good was that though I was not getting cast in big films I was getting good roles. When I did a Parineeta or a Lage Raho Munna Bhai I didn’t play the lead. I did a lot of solo work too but no one saw those films. At least I was being noticed in the non-lead roles. It was a choice I had to make.”
Dia has always been keen to tie the knot. “When I was 21, I used to say I’d marry before turning 24. At 24, I’d say I’ll get married by 27,” says the actor who has crossed the 27 year mark already. “Do I think of marriage? Yes I do. I’m in a committed relationship. Sahil and I have thought of marriage and it is an eventuality. But I don’t think it will happen soon as there is a certain amount of work we want to do before taking that step. The truth is that work won’t stop if we get married but marriage comes with a whole lot of responsibilities. We’re both young and want to enjoy the space we are in right now.”