Actor-singer Sophie Choudry was just two days old when her grandmother had a dream. “One day, she would be on album covers,” she predicted. Years later, the UK-born artiste says she feels grateful to have come a long way, geographically as well as emotionally, in an industry which didn’t quite know what to do with her as a British-Asian working in Bollywood.
“To get myself out of the glam doll box, that was virtually impossible. I was told things like, ‘Don’t think na, don’t have a brain,'” Choudry recalls her early days in the film industry after she moved to Mumbai in 2003.
Over the years, she dropped several chartbuster songs, from “Ek Pardesi Mera Dil Le Gaya”, “Mera Babu Chhail Chabila”, “Zuby Zuby” and ventured into films, with appearances in David Dhawan’s Shaadi No 1, Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Once Upon ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara among others.
As she launched her latest single “Lips”, sung by her and also featuring Freddy Daruwala, Sophie Choudry sat down with Indianexpress.com to trace her career, open up about her setbacks and reveal if having friends in the industry, such as Karan Johar, Varun Dawan, Manish Malhotra, help as a sounding board.
Edited excerpts:
Sophie Choudry recently launched her latest single, “Lips”.
The story goes that your grandmother saw you for the first time and predicted you’d be a singer, is that correct?
She had a dream two days after I was born. She told my mother, ‘Her face would be on record covers, ye singer banegi!‘ Everyone thought, ‘Sure.’ But strangely enough that’s what destiny had in store for me. I began as a backing vocalist at the age of 11 and here I am. Nothing was planned, my entire family is abroad, so to even move to India… I thought I would come here for a year and see how it goes.
Biddu (Appaiah, British-Indian musician who launched her) had an idea of putting together a British-Asian girl band, these exotic girls singing in English. This is when I was in college in the UK. We auditioned, put together a band and got our first record deal with Universal India. The first song I wrote for our band (Sansara) was Yeh Dil Sun Raha Hai. I was only 17! It did really well. We did one more song, but the band split up. I got a solo deal.
How did you react to fame at that young age?
I still don’t consider myself famous, back then all the more not. I had the taste of fame when I was a VJ in the UK. My show was extremely popular. We had an annual carnival and one year Akshay Kumar, Mahima Choudhry came in my booth and I needed as much security.
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Was Shah Rukh Khan the first ever celebrity you interviewed? Around this time?
I used to do a show about music, which was very popular. And there were other people on the channel who would do these interviews but for some reason that day I was asked to interview Shah Rukh. That was one of my first interviews of my life! I went out to buy a new outfit and I was so excited! He was so nice, funny and sweet. When he met me here in Mumbai, he remembered and said, ‘Tu yaha aagayi? Achcha kiya!‘
When you moved here for work, did people in the industry look at you differently just because you weren’t born and brought up in India?
There was a huge perception battle. I think what happened was when I came here, doing the pop (singing) stuff was fine but my music company at one point wasn’t sure what they wanted to do with me. I was getting frustrated and then MTV was keen to hire me. When I became a VJ with them, I was known overnight. For the movie people, there was an immediate perception that, ‘Ye toh bahar ki ladki hai, ye aisi hogi, waisi hogi.’
She is very strong, independent; she is sexy, glamorous, she can only do this. It came with a lot of pre-conceived notions of what I was not comfortable with, they were not easy to deal with. It is so ironic because people don’t realise that the agents living abroad are far more conservative than here. I remember when I was a VJ there, even if I wore a sleeveless top, I would get hate mails. They would write, ‘Aapne toh aise revealing dress pehen liye…’ Cut to, I come to MTV and here I am wearing tiny skirts, crop tops and it was fine. People often forget that British Asians are more conservative in many ways.
Did you get uncomfortable when you were being slotted as the glamourous girl?
What really used to trouble people was the fact that I was multi-talented. I was a VJ, my songs Ek Pardesi and Mera Babu had become smash hits. It was like, ‘She is a VJ. she is a pop star, and now she wants to be an actor as well, she should choose one thing.’ That’s what used to trouble people, that why can’t she just do one thing.
Today of course, people are revered for doing many things. ‘Oh they can sing also, host also?!’ From Ayushamann Khurrana, Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar, Shraddha Kapoor. I could also do so many things but they were not ok with it then. It used to be like, ‘In movies if we take her, we will just give her the glam doll role because beyond that now, no one is going to take her seriously.’ That was difficult and frustrating.
How did you navigate it?
You couldn’t. The only way I did was by consciously creating my own niche, my space. I chose the best out of what was offered to me and not all of them were. But when your options are so limited, you try to pick the best. I was lucky with some of it. But to get myself out of the glam doll box, that was virtually impossible. I was told things like, ‘Don’t think na, don’t have a brain.’
You are friends with Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan, Manish Malhotra… do you ever bounce your ideas with them?
People have always had this perception that, ‘Sophie ki toh puri industry ke saath dosti hai, woh sabklo jaanti hai.’ They must be thinking that everyone is out there helping me. But no one has ever helped, ever. I want to make it clear that you don’t get that much in the industry just through friendships. It is a business, people will work with you if they want to.
I am aware that I don’t want to cross over that line, these are my friends. Yes, if I want advice, I will always go to them. Varun has been the most active, during my last song ‘Gori Hai’, he was the first person I showed it to because I wanted him to launch it and he started asking what is my media plan, if I have shown this to Karan! So with ‘Lips’ I didn’t want to trouble too many people, but they have always been encouraging.
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