Diya Mirza

Dia Mirza Handrich nicknamed Dee and more popularly known as Dia Mirza, (born on December 9, 1981) is a Indian model and actress who appears in Bollywood films. She was second runner up at Femina Miss India, 2000 and was subsequently sent to Miss Asia Pacific, 2000, where she won.

She completed the hat-trick of India winning international pageants in the year 2000 (Lara Dutta won the Miss Universe title and Priyanka Chopra won the Miss World title in the same year) when she won the Miss Asia Pacific title on 3 December 2000 in Manila, Philippines, also making her the first Indian contestant to win this title in 29 years.

Dia Mirza was born in Hyderbad, Andhra Pradesh. Her father, Frank Handrich, was a German graphic and industrial fair designer, architect, artist and interior designer from Munich and her mother, Deepa is a Bengali Indian who is an interior designer, landscaper and currently does social work as a volunteer to help alcoholics and addicts.

They separated when she was six years old. Her father died when she was nine and her mother remarried Ahmed Mirza, who died in 2004. She adopted her stepfather's surname Mirza and has recently adopted the last name of her birth-father and became Dia Mirza Handrich.

When living in Khairatabad, Hyderabad, she attended Vidyaranya High School for Boys And Girls, a school based on the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, and later Nasr School, in Khairtabad. She completed her graduation in Bachelors of Arts from Open University, Hyderabad.

Mirza started working at the age of 16 years while continuing her college education. She worked as a marketing executive in a multi-media firm called Dr. Neeraj’s Multi media studio. She simultaneously modeled for the print and television advertisement campaigns of various brands such as Walls, Lipton, Emami etc.

Amrita Rao

Amrita Rao ( born 17 June 1981) is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films.

Beginning her career as a model, Rao made her acting debut with Ab Ke Baras (2002) for which she won her best debut award. She then starred in Ken Ghosh's love-story Ishq Vishk (2003) and earned a Filmfare nomination in the Best Female Debut category.

Rao was born in Mumbai to a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family. She speaks Marathi, Hindi, English and her mother tongue, Konkani. She attended Canossa High school in Mumbai, and later enrolled in Sophia College to pursue a degree in Psychology.

While studying in Sophia College, Rao auditioned for an advertisement for Fairever Face Cream. Her appearance in Cadbury’s Perk Karwa Chaut ad and the Bru Coffee advertisement helped her receive offers from film directors in Bollywood.

Rao made her acting debut with Ab Ke Baras (2002), and followed that with her (2003) film, Ishq Vishk, in which she portrayed Payal. In her films Masti (2004} and Main Hoon Na, Deewaar (2004) were released. Vaah! Life Ho To Aisi (2005), Shikhar (2005), and Pyare Mohan (2006) followed. She starred in Sooraj R. Barjatya's Vivah (2006) opposite Shahid Kapoor. Her performance earned her a Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award.

In 2006 Rao made her debut in Tollywood, with the Telugu film Athidhi opposite Mahesh Babu. Amrita's releases in 2008 include My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves and Welcome to Sajjanpur. Amrita's releases in 2009 are Victory, and Shortkut.

Lara Dutta

Lara Dutta (born 16 April 1978) is an Indian actress, UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and former Miss Universe.

Dutta was born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh to a Punjabi father and an Anglo-Indian mother. Her father is Wing Commander L.K. Dutta (retired) and her mother is Jennifer Dutta. She also has two older sisters, one of whom serves in the Indian Air Force and a well known younger sister. Famed composer and DJ Nitin Sawhney is Dutta's cousin

The Dutta family moved to Bangalore in 1981 where she completed high school from St.Francis Xavier Girls' High School and the Frank Anthony Public School. Lara graduated in economics with a minor in communications from University of Mumbai. She was crowned Miss Universe in 2000 which led to her appointment as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador in 2001.

Dutta won the annual Gladsrags modeling competition in her native India, thus winning the right to be the first Indian representative at the 1997 Miss Intercontinental, in which she took first place. Later, she was crowned Femina Miss India Universe and Miss Universe in 2000.

At Miss Universe 2000 in Cyprus, Dutta was the clear favourite ahead of fierce competition from Venezuela, Spain, USA and Canada. She achieved the highest score in the swimsuit competition and her finalist interview score was the highest individual score in any category in the history of the Miss Universe contest, as her perfect interview saw a majority of the judges giving her the maximum 9.99 mark. After her final question, in which Dutta delivered a passionate defense of the Miss Universe contest (and other beauty pageants), she became the second Indian Miss Universe.

In the same year, Priyanka Chopra and Dia Mirza won their respective Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific titles which gave India a rare triple victory in the world of beauty pageants.

Pooja Umashankar

Pooja (born 25 June 1981 as Pooja Gauthami Umashankar) is an actress who has appeared in Tamil, Sinhalese and Malayalam films.

Following a series of successful commercial ventures, Bala's Naan Kadavul saw Pooja's performance as a blind beggar praised by the critics, securing major awards, including the South Filmfare and Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, in the process.

Her mother is a Sri Lankan Sinhalese and her father is Kannadiga. The languages she can speak are Kannada, Tamil, Sinhalese, and English. She went to school and college in Bangalore, Baldwin's and Mount Carmel College respectively. Her fathers name is Uma Shankar who was at Valparai working with Hindustan Unilever Limited as a manager.Her father was not at all interested in film industry but she was attached to it.

Her debut film was Ullam Ketkumae in Tamil with Shaam, Laila, Arya, and Asin Thottumkal which was directed by the late Jeeva. It wasn't released until her second and third films Jay Jay and Attagasam released in 2003 and 2004 respectively. She bagged one of the main roles in Bala's Naan Kadavul by replacing Bhavana and was appreciated by the critics for her fantastic performance.

She became a sensation in Sri Lankan film industry and a household name after the success of Anjalika (2005) and Asai Man Piyambanna (2007). This also earned her the role of broadband ambassador for SLT (Sri Lanka Telecom).

She is one of the judges in the popular reality dance show Aatam Paatam Kondatam opposite dance master Prasanna on Kalaignar TV,suntv.