Katy Mirza, possibly Bombay’s hottest pin-up model in the seventies, earned notoriety as India’s first Playboy bunny. Now years later, having put life in Bombay behind her and having made London her home, she can’t seem to live her old reputation down

By Niwek Oger

“You want to interview me? So you guys believe I am alive after all,” she says at the other end of the telephone. She is unaware that one is totally oblivious to this fact as it is only a few years ago a western journalist ‘announced’ her demise. “Mujhe aisa koi kuch bolta rehta hai (I hear this once over),” she adds, adding with a cackle, “Don’t you think that people want me dead?”

Some 14 years after she quit the film industry, Katy Mirza now has made London her permanent abode. Her sister, who lives on Marble Arch, meets up with her 10-year-old son, Pedro, a student of a top London school. But photographs from her modelling days are picked up by some from the Indian press and printed for no reason at all. “They should ask me if I am dead or alive,” she says quite irritated.

But for her it’s hardly that which concerns her now. She has recently come featured on the covers of Eve’s Weekly, Illustrated Weekly and Femina in the same month. She still speaks with a ‘Havvi’ accent and sings praises of her placed community. “In every walk of life, we Parsis have added sugar to the milk.”

The sweetness in her tone reflects her love for the simple way of life. She insists there are no regrets despite being cut off by the film world. “No never ever wanted to go back,” she says. “I never wanted to be an actress at all. My life was never in the ‘duniya’ (world). It was not my ‘cup of tea’,” she says.

Her fame and ‘Stardust’ scandal came instantaneously. “It came to me very swiftly, on an open-light for cover works. Eventually everything went haywire, but there was no turning back.”

Nevertheless, she can claim to be one of the first Indian models to achieve international recognition. “I was the only one who had brown and stunning hair,” she says. Unaffected by highlights of the hair, many were found blown into her looks and for her famous looks.

“I knew how to wear make-up in those days. We wore cleansers upon the models,” she thinks. “Today girls are very fortunate. They have everything. They travel abroad, are well educated, get international exposure and are very professional. They have got the much-needed ‘lift’ which was absent when I was there. She does not get the wind. “Oh I love Bombay so much,” and I think Katy’s daughter will inherit her sentiment.”

Born 51 years ago in Aden, Katie’s family immigrated to Bombay after her father died when she was two.

She did her schooling in Panchgani and joined Zeta Rampton and learned to speak very Spanish and English. Was crowned Femina’s Miss Shira in 1967. “Katrina preferred me dear,” she says. The trend had swept the country — from blue jeans to church gatherings where mini-skirts were the order of the school. Her speed to put in everything remained intact through her modelling days.

Off the beaten path she has encountered loads of problems because of her outlook. Although things have improved from then, it is something that won’t go away easily,” she says.