Neha Dhupia completes 20 years as Miss India, Dia Mirza shares a note for her ‘fierce, authentic’ friend

Dia Mirza has penned a note of appreciation for fellow actor and former Beauty queen Neha Dhupia. Dia had won the Miss Asia Pacific International title in 2000 whereas Neha won Femina Miss India in 2002 and was among the top 10 finalists at the Miss Universe pageant. Both Dia and Neha are now actors, married and have kids. Also read: Malaika Arora, Kriti Sanon, Neha Dhupia, Saisha Shinde add Bollywood glamour to Miss India event. See pics

Taking to her Instagram Stories, Dia shared a picture of Neha from the Miss India event held in Mumbai on Sunday, along with a message. She wrote, “Celebrating 20 years of this fierce, authentic, strong and beautiful woman.”

Neha was among the jury members at the Miss India event on Sunday. She was felicitated by her parents Pradip Singh Dhupia and Manpider Dhupia on stage as she completed 20 years of winning the Miss India crown. Her actor husband Angad Bedi and kids Mehr and Guriq also joined her on stage later.

Neha joined the jury members Malaika Arora, Dino Morea, cricketer Mithali Raj and others at the event. She walked the red carpet in a powder blue gown with cape sleeves and also wore the crown on stage.

Soon after her pageant win, Neha made her Bollywood debut with 2003 film Qayamat: City Under Threat. Since then, she has featured in multiple films like Julie, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Chup Chup Ke, De Dana Dan, Tumhari Sulu, Lust Stories and Helicopter Eela. She was last seen as a police officer in A Thursday, which had Yami Gautam as a kidnapper.

Neha tied the knot with actor Angad Bedi in 2018. The couple have a three-year-old daughter Mehr Dhupia Bedi and a nine-month-old son Guriq.

Talking to Hindustan Times about how she manages it all, Neha had said in February this year, “We do not fight over babysitting duties, because we were never people who were extremely conscious of routine. We do not fight, but we try to work our schedules around and it is very tough to manage when you have two kids and also jobs where you do not have a routine. Of course, we can’t move dates for a film but we can ask that we would prefer a Monday shoot instead of Sunday for an ad.”