I chase dreams that fulfill me and not a dream that somebody else describes to me.

When I started out, at 19, I was told, by the media and the film industry to do a certain kind of films and work with certain kind of stars. Coming from a non-filmi background, I did not know how to go about it, as there were different people trying to push me in various directions.

If you are a woman and an actor, it does not mean that you have to contain or limit yourself to just being that.

People wonder why a man and woman can't be friends after being in love. It is because it's very tough to look beyond the hurt and try to find a common ground to be friends. It's it like a healing wound.

Being pregnant is a wonderful thing. I have never understood why people make such a big deal of it though.

I am never going to stop evolving and growing.

I handle my home beautifully. However, I am not just my husband's name.

The one thing I have discovered is that we all have challenges; the challenges vary, but our response to the challenges makes us people we are.

I lost my biological father at nine, but up until then, we celebrated Christmas and Easter too.

I was allowed to take my adoptive father's surname. My birth certificate has a different name. My passport has both my adoptive and biological father's surnames.

I chose to be part of 'Kaafir' because the story called out to my soul, I need to connect with it.

I grew up on a staple of films where I saw actors like Waheeda Rehman, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi playing very powerful parts in films.

It's really the tone that people use to convey things sometimes that can either become a compliment or an insult. It's not always what you are saying, it's about how you say it.

I was told 'You should just do commercials and Bollywood' and Bollywood would be said to me like it's a bad thing.

Beauty judgements are many and while we think that light skin women have no judgements to deal with. There is this filmmaker I love and respect and I really wanted to work with, once told me 'You are too fair to be in my movies.' And then I have also heard 'You are too pretty to play this part.'

I am in Deepak Ramsay's 'Koi Mere Dil Mein Hain,' where I am a modern girl who wears bold outfits. She makes heads turn wherever she goes. She is not a brat. She nurses this false belief that she can get any man she wants.

Beauty is not about good skin, features and figure, but about your nature and habits.

Dia is the way my name was originally spelt. When I was applying for my passport for the Femina Miss India Contest, someone spelt my name as Diya. Since it was on my passport, I couldn't do much about it.

Every role I have in my kitty is different. None of them resemble the roles I have played in my earlier films.

One should never ignore or be afraid of reporting or calling out a harasser. There is no shame in doing so.

When I was younger, back home in Hyderabad even I faced a stalker. I confronted him and asked him his name. That moment, the boy didn't have an answer.

I can make a mean Kachchi Biryani, and sometimes I bake it, too.

I started cooking when I was growing up in Hyderabad, and I was already pretty decent when I was around seven years old.

Participating in Miss India was a paradigm shift and I had a blast.