When, in 1997, Diana Hayden won the Femina Miss Indiacontest, she found her right calling. “I instinctively realised then that itwas the world of beauty and good grooming that I wanted to excel in,” she says.The seriousness of her intent led her to win the Miss World 1997 pageant at theage of 24. Following her tenure as the global representative for the Miss Worldorganisation, Diana moved to the UK and studied acting at the Royal Academy ofDramatic Art. She also studied at the Drama Studio London, where sheconcentrated on the works of Shakespeare and earned a Best Actress nominationfrom the studio. In 2001, she made her screen debut in the film version ofShakespeare’s ‘Othello’ in South Africa.
In 2006, she was signed by the Avalon Academy and currentlyserves as a celebrity guest lecturer for airline personnel training programs.In 2008, Diana became a wild card entry on the second season of the popularIndian TV show ‘Bigg Boss’. However, she was voted off during the 13th week.And then, Diana decided to take a break and embark on a mission that had beenat the back of her mind since almost a decade. “Having interacted with so manycelebrities and up and coming models and actors, I wanted to distill myexperience and write a book that would help women understand the finer nuancesof good grooming,” she says in the course of an interview in Vadodara.
And that’s how ‘The Beautiful Truth’ has come about.Launched pan-India in August this year, it has turned out to be a bestsellerand Diana is already getting calls to follow it up with a sequel. “I think thebook has connected with a lot of women because it also deals with personalitydevelopment and confidence building,” she says. It took her two years tocomplete the book in the course of which she was amazed at the kind ofmisinformation that was floating around, especially in the virtual world of theinternet. “I found that advice or grooming tips were being handed outcarelessly without any scientific basis. I mean how can you just recommend aparticular shampoo to make your hair look glossy and also grow in abundance?Each person’s body chemistry is different and therefore requires a specific andfocused approach,” she states.
As to whether the art of writing came easily to her, Dianasays that it did require a very disciplined approach. “I just shut myself outfrom the social circuit for two years and my friends would often complain thatI was giving unnecessary time to the book. But I knew that I had to get it outfrom within me no matter what. What helped is that I have always been avoracious reader and so putting something into words isn’t too difficult. But Imust admit that the only thing I had written earlier was a story for the schoolmagazine and that was a long time ago,” she says.
