New beginnings for Dia Mirza

What better way to bring in the New Year with hopes to make a difference in the lives of the lesser privileged? And Dia Miarza is doing just that. Dia is planning to set up her own foundation sometime next year. "What I hope to do is to be a facilitator to smaller NGOs," she says. And the causes that she wishes to take up? "Anything from children's education to environment to spreading awareness about cancer," says the actress.

The lukewarm response to her maiden production Love Breakups Zindagi has done nothing to dampen the actress' enthusiasm for producing movies. The next year will see her and co-producers Sahil Sangha and Zayed Khan announce their next venture. "We're working on four scripts at the moment and by February next year, we should be able to make an announcement," says Dia.

For Dia, who celebrated her birthday yesterday, 2012 was a year of preparation. "There were lots of things I had to step away from to make way for the new. Next year is going to be about realising the fruits of the labour," says Dia. She also received accolades for her debut in a Bengali film. "There have been lots of offers from regional cinema after that, but honestly, I've not been able to pay much attention to them because I've been so focused on my in-house productions," she says.

As for marriage to long-time boyfriend Sahil, Dia admits that her family has taken some commitment from him about the nuptials taking place by next year. "But unless he marries me on a film set, I really don't know how that will happen!" she laughs.