Sofia Ashraf is an Indian rapper, singer, songwriter, filmmaker and content creator. She is also a social activist and is known for her songs “Don’t Work for Dow”, released in 2008, and “Kodaikanal Won’t”, released in 2015, which criticize businesses for being careless and failing to address industrial accidents. Criticize.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Sophia Thenmozhi Ashraf was born in 1987 (age 35 years; as of 2022) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Sophia studied Islamic history and philosophy. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Design and Decoration from Justice Bashir Ahmed Sayeed College for Women in Chennai. She stood first in the university. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in 2007, she went on to study Master of Arts in Graphic Design at Stella Maris College, Chennai. Apart from being one of the topper students in the class, she actively participated in extra-curricular activities in college.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx): 5′ 2″
Weight (Approx): 45 kg
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Family
Sophia belongs to a conservative Malayali Muslim family in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Sofia with her family
Husband
Sofia married Bilal Ansari on 7 May 2022.
Sofia with her husband Bilal Ansari
relationships/affairs
Reportedly, Sofia and Bilal Ansari started dating each other in 2020. They met each other in 2020 during the pandemic caused by COVID-19.
livelihood
rapper
Sophia started rapping at the age of 18. He participated in a college festival where he rapped on self-written lyrics based on society’s treatment of Muslims following the 2001 suicide terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremist, al-Qaeda, against the United States. She performed on stage wearing a hijab, earning her fame as “The Burqa Rapper”. His first performance was at Justice Rocks, an initiative to criticize corporate globalization and discrimination with the help of art and music.
Solo
In his 2008 song “Don’t Work for Dow” he condemned the multinational chemical corporation Dow for not being able to compensate the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. She became popular for her song “Kodaikanal Wont” released in 2015. In the music video of the song, he highlights and criticizes mercury pollution in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu from a thermometer factory owned by Unilever, a multinational consumer goods company. The song was set to the music of Nicki Minaj’s song “Anaconda”. The video received over 4 million views on YouTube. Highlighting this issue through song, the company compensated 591 former employees.
In June 2016, he released “Dow vs. Bhopal: A Toxic Rap Battle”. She had a series on the YouTube channel “Blush” called “Sista from the South”, under which she released the song “Any Good News” in 2016. In the same year, he released the song “Tama-Brahma”. In 2017, she came out with a song titled “I Can’t Do Sexy”. She released several music and comedy videos on YouTube showcasing social issues and problems faced by women.
movies
He wrote and rapped the popular song “Jiya Re” from the 2012 film “Jab Tak Hai Jaan”. He has also written songs for Kollywood films such as “Marion” (2013) and “Inime Ippadithan” (2015). In “Inime Ippadithan” he rapped and wrote the lyrics for the song “Aathana Azhagayum”. In 2020, he rapped in the song “Gimme Your Banana”, the title track of the short film Miyan “Biwi Aur Banana”. The song was released to celebrate International Women’s Day to promote Saathi pads, which are 100% biodegradable and made from banana fibre.
Collaboration
In 2015, she released the song “Deen” in collaboration with Malavika Manoj, who is a singer and songwriter. The track’s music video was revealed in 2020 as a part of a project titled ‘Caffenol 7266’. In 2020, G. Logan and Sophia collaborated with each other and released the song “Let Chennai Breathe” to ask the Health Minister to clean up Chennai’s polluted air.
Director and Producer
In 2016, he started working as a consultant producer at Culture Machine Media Pvt. Ltd. Ltd. Media Company has a YouTube channel named “Blush”, under which they started a series called “Sista from the South”. She created music and comedy videos based on the identity of modern Indian women. He wrote, produced, starred in, rapped, designed, directed, and edited his own series. He has written and directed scripts for actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Kalki Koechlin, Taapsee Pannu, Shruti Haasan, Richa Chadha and others.
Awards and Nominations
- Won Young Creative Person of the Year at Heroes, Ogilvy India in 2013
- Finalist for Young Achiever of the Year – South Asia by Agency of the Year Awards – South Asia in 2014
- Won Best Script Award at the 2017 Bilbao International Animation Community Festival
Favorite
- Song: “Beirut” by Ibrahim Malouf.
- Travel Destination: Pushkar, Tokyo
Facts/General Knowledge
- Sofia is also known as “The Burqa Rapper”.
- When she was asked in an interview whether she wanted to be something other than a rapper and writer, she replied,
I wanted to be a lot of things, and had the privilege and privilege to try them. From dubbing for anime to writing greeting cards. Event Management, PR, Designing, Editing, Cookery Show, Theatre, Dance, Teaching. I juggle so many businesses, I’ve developed gills. In this smorgasbord of careers, one profession that has always fascinated me is filmmaking. I dream of becoming a director one day, and who knows, I might get there.”
- He is fluent in English and French. She can speak Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi at a conversational level.
- She loves sketching and regularly posts pictures of her paintings on social media.
- While talking in an interview about whether she wanted to retire from work or continue working as long as possible, she said,
I lived day-to-day, project-by-project. I worked three jobs at once. I never took even Sunday off and worked on every Eid and national holiday. Then I turned 30 and my body decided to take a long overdue sick leave. I was physically and emotionally broken. I used to be someone who over-romanticized the hustle. Now, I value comfort. I would like to retire someday, but I hope to keep writing forever.
- When Sophia raps, her approach is different. Unlike other rappers who talk about parties and alcohol, his songs spread awareness about health and the environment. Talking about this he said,
Rap has become synonymous with liquor, bottle, girl – courtesy the Delhi rap scene. Honey Singh actually started rapping about Bhagat Singh. But the audience refused to accept it. So these people started writing about alcohol and women. But with the popularity of “Kodaikanal Will Not”, I think audiences have started accepting that rap doesn’t have to be just a misogynistic medium. I’m hoping that the entertainment industry will also take notice and realize that rap doesn’t need to be branded as the art it is today. It can go back to its original roots where rap was a medium of rebellion.
- In 2007, he started working as a copywriter at ITC Limited and junior copywriter at Convex Studio. He also worked as a creative consultant at Exodus Events for five months in 2009.
- In 2009, she worked as a voice-over artist on the Nickelodeon show “Ninja Hattori”, voicing the character Yumeko.
- In February 2009, he started working as a freelance journalist at The Times of India; He worked there for more than a year.
- In 2013, he worked as a screenwriter for 9th Step Entertainment. He wrote two scripts in English adapting two stage musicals, Aladdin and Sister Act.
- She worked as a Creative Supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather for 5 years (from 2010 to 2015). She trained and supervised juniors and performed production roles such as sourcing directors, composers, voices, actors and performers, coordinating with the studio and final supervision, doing voiceovers, and writing songs.
- He worked with AR Rahman as a composer and project manager for 8 years. He did songwriting, rapping, video editing, social media, costume designing, stage design and project management.
- In 2018, he started working as a Creative Consultant at JANRISE ADVERTISING PVT. Ltd. His job role was to create upgrades and strategy for brands like Continental Coffee, Ratnadeep Supermarket and Birla Shakti Cement.
- In 2020, he held the position of Creative Director at The Rabbit Hole in Mumbai for over a year. In this company he directed 120 videos in a time period of 20 months. He has created, conceptualized, and distributed content videos for brands like Netflix and Tinder. His job profile included roles like creative strategist, writer, video director and creative lead.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn