In the name of the girl child

Veteran actor Waheeda Rehman, beauty queen Dia Mirza and director Tanuja Chandra come together for a cause
When the opportunity to make a public service video for the cause of the girl child presented itself, filmmaker Tanuja Chandra was most excited. Before work started on the video, the two people that came foremost to Tanuja's mind were Waheeda Rehman and Dia Mirza.The story that Tanuja penned needed two characters who portray a girl who's emotionally stunted because her father never relied on her because of her gender. "And when she finally does become someone who society looks upto, her father realises the mistake he made in thinking his daughter incapable," says actor Dia Mirza. "Waheedaji fit the bill because she is so ageless and Dia is a beautiful girl. She also bears close resemblance to Waheedaji. We've put a beauty spot on Dia, just as Waheedaji has always noticeably worn in most of her films," says Tanuja.
For Dia, working with Waheeda was an experience in itself. "In the video, there's a point where I'm sitting on the bed wearing my hair just the way she did in Guide. It felt special. And what made it more special was the fact that it supports such an important cause," she says.
Elaborating further on the cause, Dia adds, "There are hundreds of people in rural India who still think that a daughter is a huge liability, and that needs to change." The statistics are most alarming in North India, "To the extent that there are only about seven hundred girls for every thousand boys in a lot of states. And that's something we need to look into. Even around us, it's not uncommon to meet people and see such discrimination first hand. Most people think of a girl child as a liability because from day one, they worry about the fact that they have to save up for dowry," says Dia. "And in a lot of cases, people also don't see a point in educating them because eventually they are expected to just bear children," adds Waheeda. "I think women need to be given a greater opportunity to make up for years of oppression. And the most beautiful part about all this is that it only takes one day of our lives to send this message out to millions of people."