Dia Mirza is tracing her German roots on a trip to her ‘fatherland’ and sharing family pics
Dia Mirza’s late father Frank Handrich was a German. (Instagram)
Actor Dia Mirza is on a special journey to Germany to explore her roots. Dia’s late father Frank Handrich was a German, while her mother Deepa is a Bengali. The Sanju star is paying an emotional visit to her father’s ancestral home, and a glimpse at her social media accounts is enough to see that she is having a wonderful stay there as she explores her ancestry.

On Friday, in one of the first posts from her trip to Germany, Dia alongside a photograph of her with a few relatives from her father’s family, who joined her in Munich, wrote, “We are family! This was so precious ?? #TracingMyRoots #FamilyTime #FatherLand #LaFamilia #TravelWithDee”.

Documenting her unforgettable stay, the half-German star has been using a handful of hashtags, like #TracingMyRoots #FamilyTime #FatherLand #LaFamilia , along with her travel and family posts. Dia’s photos have garnered quite a bit of buzz from her online fanbases — with some leaving comments like, “That makes sense... you got that look... German roots... pretty.”

In a rare interview with Miss Malini for a web series called Girl Tribe, Dia shared it was hard for her to keep up with her parents’ divorce, as she was only four, when they separated.
“I was very much attached to my father at the age of 4, he was my hero. In Lage Raho Munna Bhai, the shot where I am talking about how my father has lied to me in the cab with Jimmy (Shergil), on how disappointed I am with that lie, I say he is my Hero. That line came because I always perceived my father as a hero,” Dia said in the interview.

However, after her parents were separated, Dia’s mother Deepa married Ahmed Mirza, a Hyderabadi Muslim. Dia also opened up about her relationship with her step-father, who died in 2003 and moving from a half-European home to an Indian Muslim one.

“It was very confusing in the beginning but I think just because of the kind of people both my parents remarried, and the kind of human beings they both were, like my...I hate calling him my stepfather. But I do it so that people don’t get confused. But my stepfather was an amazing, amazing human being. They both...my father, my stepfather and my mother consciously decided not to have another child,” Dia said.

First Published: Sep 22, 2018 17:40 IST