Dia Mirza recalls starring as extra in Jumbalakka video for ‘good money’. Can you spot her?

Before entering limelight with her Miss India Asia Pacific crown in 2000, Dia Mirza worked as an extra on a Tamil movie. She had a small appearance in En Swasa Kaatre’s hit song Jumbalakka alongside Mink. Dia has now said that she even received a good sum for her stint.

En Swasa Kaatre is a 1999 movie starring Arvind Swamy and Isha Koppikar and directed by KS Ravi. Special song Jumbalakka showed Raju Sundaram trying to woo Mink Brar while Dia played one of her friends.

Speaking with The Times of India, Dia said about her appearance, “I played as what they call an extra in a song. It made me enough money to go and shoot my first professional portfolio. 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 added, “It was composed by MM Keeravani. We shot the video entirely in Hyderabad. I have been looking for the song on YouTube.” You can watch the video and try to spot Dia here:

After starring in the video in 1999, Dia stood third in the Miss India pageant. Lara Datta won the Miss India Universe crown while Priyanka Chopra won the Miss India World. That year, all three won their respestive international titles as well.

Later, Dia forayed into movies and starred in films such as Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein, Deewaanapan, Dum, Lage Raho Munna Bhai and others. Her latest release was Anubhav Sinha’s Bheed. Recently in an interview with PTI, Dia said, “I was so young when I joined (the film industry) and I have seen a lot of setbacks. When your films don’t work, the media, the industry are so harsh. They make it look like it is your fault that your films didn’t work.”

“With these experiences, you go through the challenge of not finding work when you believe you deserve more work. And then you realise that if you keep waiting for people to give you what you want, you will never have it. You will have to trust what you are able to offer and meet opportunities with preparedness,” she added.