Sophie Choudry

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Sophie Choudry is an Indian singer and a popular MTV VJ.

Sophie is a linguist, and speaks English, Hindi, Urdu and French. She sings in these languages as well as in Spanish, Punjabi and Arabic.

[edit] Bio

Sophie was born in UK. Her father adored Sophia Loren and hence her birthname is "Sophia", however she now goes by the name "Sophie".

She was a performer from a young age: a part of the school choir and playing the lead role in school and college musicals. Her talent was discovered by the acclaimed music director Biddu when she was 13 years old. She started her career by singing back up for Shweta Shetty and Alisha Chinai.

[edit] Education

Sophie was a brilliant student. Reportedly, before her 'A' levels her headmistress actually called in her mum, and told her that Sophie needed a holiday! She attended one of the best Private Schools in England, where she indulged not only in Drama, Theatre, Music and Sports but also debate. She began debating from the age of 11 on issues ranging from the right of Abortion, smoking in public, to the benefits of E.U. She captained her interschool debate team.

Sophie got 4 'A's in her A level examinations; French, History, Italian and Drama and also achieved an A grade in 'AS level' maths. She then went onto become part of the prestigious London School of Economics in a course which has room for only 13 students; European Politics and French. As part of her degree Sophie studied for nearly two years at "Sciences-Po" in Paris, the most prized political institute, from which all French Prime ministers and Presidents have graduated. She was the only Indian student in the entire college, and almost all the other students were of French origin. Nonetheless despite the odds, she topped her "Geo-political class and exam". She went on to write a 10,000word dissertation in French on the role of women in the French Resistance and got a "First" for it.

[edit] Career in India

Having completed her education, Sophie decided it was time to follow her dreams and she began her singing career. She moved to Mumbai in 2003, became an MTV VJ and a successful singer. She is trained in classical Indian dance, Bharatnatyam, Kathak and street dance.

Sophie has also compared various award shows such as Star Screen Awards and several corporate events for Airtel, Tata, Godrej and many others.

She hosted MTV Loveline. She made her debut in 2000 with her all-girl band "Sansara" with a song which Sophie herself wrote ("Yeh Dil Sun Raha Hai"). Her videos "Habibi" and "Le Le Mera Dil" were popular. She has performed from in many Indian cities, as well as in Montreal and London's Wembley Arena.

In November 2003, she released her first super-hit remix album "Sophie & Dr. Love"; Mera Babu Chail Chabila. The album was a chart-topper for six months in India and broke records in the U.K Asian Pop Charts by holding the number 1 spot for 12 weeks^{[citation needed]}. The album contained old classics by Runa Laila, Nazia Hassan and Salma Agha. The video also was highly appreciated with Sophie donning the role of a shy yet sexy salwar kameez, cycle rikshaw traveling all Indian girl. The video was directed by Rao and Sapru of Kaanta Laga fame and music remixed by Harry Anand.

Less than one year on, Sophie returned with her newest offering "Babylove"; Ek Pardesi Mera Dil Legaya. According to Sophie, she listened to over 400 songs in order to come up with her perfect 12. Songs on this album include Dil Ke Armaan, Ghar aaya Mera Pardesi, Bachke Rehna re baba, Zoobi Zoobi, Naulakha, and Jaadugar Saiyyan. The Ek pardesi video showed Sophie as glamorous and endearing. This was followed up by videos of Jaadugar Saiyyan and nine other short videos from the album including the songs Naulakha, Dil ke Arman, the hip hop Kissiko, Saiyyan le Gayi Jiya and many more.

In October 2004, she won the Lycra MTV style award for "Most stylish female in music". In January 2005, she won the Bollywood award for Best pop Singer, at the Bollywood Awards held in Dubai Global Village in January 2005.

She made her Hindi film debut in David Dhawan's film "Shaadi No.1" in which she is paired opposite Zayed Khan. The film also stars Fardeen Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Esha Deol and others. The film was released on 4th November, and had a great response. Following that project Sophie has signed two more films which are almost complete; Pyar ke Side Effects which is PNC film (Pritsh Nandy Communications Production) co-starring Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat. And a film titled Speed directed by Vikram Bhatt in which Sophie stars alongside Urmila Matondkar, Zayed Khan and Aftab Shivdasani. Talks are currently on for a few more films; Bollywood, Indo-Pak and Indo-British projects.