Dia Mirza has opened up about the lengths she went to in order to make ‘Bobby Jasoos’ after the film’s financiers and studios pulled out at the last minute. The actress-turned-producer revealed that she took a bank loan and mortgaged her first home to fund the Vidya Balan-starrer, refusing to let financial hurdles stop the story from being told.Dia, who made her Bollywood debut with ‘Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein’ in 2001, ventured into production a decade later. In 2014, she decided to back ‘Bobby Jasoos’, a woman-led film starring Vidya Balan. However, the project faced financial uncertainty even after the cast and team had been finalised.Speaking about her experience as a woman producer in an industry largely dominated by men, Dia told She The People about a year ago, “I was told I would stop getting jobs as an actor if I started to produce films, and it was true. The work did dry up for a bit. I once approached this big producer who was making so many films. I told him to cast me in something and he said, ‘Oh, but I thought you are producing now.’ I was like, ‘Is that even a condition that changes your opportunities?’ In India, that perception was that if you choose to become a producer, it means that you are not interested in being in front of the camera anymore. It took me some time to dispel that myth.”Despite the setbacks, Dia remained committed to bringing ‘Bobby Jasoos’ to the big screen. The script was ready and Vidya Balan had already committed to the project.“I mortgaged my first home that I had ever bought to be able to tell the story that I wanted to tell because the film had been written. We got these dates from an extraordinary artist who I respected and loved — Vidya Balan. The whole team had been put together. And some of Vidya’s films had worked at the box office.”Vidya was already an established name at the time, having featured in successful films such as ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’, ‘Heyy Babyy’, ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ and ‘Kismat Konnection’. She had also earned widespread recognition for her performances in films including ‘No One Killed Jessica’, ‘The Dirty Picture’ and ‘Kahaani’.However, with the project ready to go, the financial backing unexpectedly disappeared.“Suddenly, studios and financers disappeared. I was like, ‘We have to make this film’ and we will make this film, and the team was like, ‘How can we make it? We don’t have money.’ So, I took a bank loan and I mortgaged my home and we made the film we wanted to make. I am so proud of it. It’s such a beautiful film and it has some of the best performances. It’s a film called Bobby Jasoos,” Dia recalled.For Dia, ensuring that Vidya received her full remuneration was equally important. She said she refused to negotiate down the actress’ fee despite the production’s financial challenges.“And two very important things attached to that reality: One, I didn’t ask Vidya for a discount. I paid her her full salary. And I think I paid her one of her career’s best salaries, which I am very proud of because she was carrying the film. The whole film was centered on her and I think it’s so important to recognise that if a male counterpart were doing the same, we would pay him handsomely. So, why not pay our women handsomely? And I made a friend for life because she recognised how much I was fueled by my passion and my purpose of storytelling.”Directed by Samar Shaikh, ‘Bobby Jasoos’ featured Vidya as a woman aspiring to become a detective and released in 2014. For Dia, the film remains an important chapter in her journey as a producer and an example of the personal risks she was willing to take to back a story she believed in.
