Dia Mirza recently revealed that she had to mortgage her home and take a bank loan to produce Bobby Jasoos after studios and financiers backed out at the last minute. The actress, who made her Bollywood debut with Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein in 2001, turned producer a decade later. In 2014, when she decided to back a woman-led film, she found herself without the financial support she had initially secured. Determined to tell the story, Dia took a major personal financial risk to make the film happen. “I paid Vidya Balan one of her career’s best salaries,” Dia said while recalling the experience.Speaking about the challenges she faced as a woman producer in a male-dominated industry, 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.”However, Dia was determined to make Bobby Jasoos, which had already been written and had Vidya Balan on board.“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.”At the time, Vidya had already delivered several successful films, including Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Kismat Konnection. She had also established herself as a leading actress with films such as No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani, which were driven by her performances and became box-office successes.ALSO READ | Why Katrina Kaif’s mother lives without electricity, internet in a Tamil Nadu villageDespite Vidya’s track record and the team being in place, the film’s financiers eventually backed out.Story continues below this ad“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.One aspect of the experience that Dia remains particularly proud of was ensuring that Vidya was paid her full fee despite the film’s financial difficulties.“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.”Bobby Jasoos, reportedly made on a budget of around Rs 26 crore, underperformed at the box office, earning around Rs 20 crore worldwide during its theatrical run. However, Dia eventually managed to recover financially through the film’s subsequent deals.Story continues below this ad“We went on to make that film exactly the way we wanted to make it. It eventually got a great satellite deal and a fantastic studio deal. And, I was able to pay off my bank loan and release my mortgage,” she said.Dia had launched Born Free Entertainment Production House with actor Zayed Khan and filmmaker Sahil Sangha, whom she was married to between 2014 and 2019. In December 2019, on her birthday, she launched another production house, One India Stories LLP, with a focus on meaningful, diverse and women-led content.Under her newer banner, Dia has so far produced two short films, Aasmani and Panha, continuing her journey as a producer beyond mainstream commercial cinema.