Channel Switch

She may have grown up in London, but she's pure desi in her moves and movies. Hottie veejay Sophie Choudry, who seems to have an array of gravity-defying skirts, will make her Bollywood debut in David Dhawan's forthcoming Shaadi No. 1. Choudry, a self-confessed "filmi child", remembers watching Dhawan's Hero No. 1 and hoping she would be part of a film like that some day. "I love commercial entertainers and one can't get more entertaining than Dhawan," she says. Not that it will be easy to shine amid a succession of stars-Dhawan's film has a bagful of pretty ladies, bronzer babe Esha Deol, simple sweetie Ayesha Takia and the posh pedigreed Soha Ali Khan. No worries. Choudry can always go back to working on her next album.

Salaam Surily

With a recommendation from star-maker Manish Malhotra, how wrong can one go? Ask Surily Goel. Already the toast of Mumbai's cocktail circuit, the 28-year-old is being talked up for Preity Zinta's sporty look in Salaam Namaste. She credits the director's vision and the star's preference, but for Bollywood, the design's all her own.

Canary High Land

At an age when most are but "confused teenagers", 13-year-old Surshree, daughter of singers Sonali and Roop Kumar Rathod, is busy recording for her debut album. Trained pianist and student of Carnatic music, Surshree insists, "It's not because of my parents that I am into it; I live music, it is in every breath I take." Apart from singing, Surshree has also composed 10 songs for the album. "She wants to do all that we've taken 20 years to do," says a proud Sonali. It's called youth.

Dishing up Surprise

She's better known as industrialist Sunjay Kapur's ex-wife and actor Dino Morea's ex-girlfriend. Now glam girl Nandita Mahtani is all set to open a seafood deli in Mumbai with brother Bharat. It is a retail progression of their family's seafood export business, says Mahtani, who is opening a branch of her boutique chain next door. "Food and fashion- the two necessities in life," laughs the leggy beauty. We doubt if she indulges in much of the former though..

-Compiled by Kimi Dangor

Index