From Barkha Madan to Nupur Alankar, several Indian actresses quit films to embrace spirituality and became monks. Another such actress, who ran away from Pakistan to become a star in Bollywood, later gave up acting and became a nun.
The actress we are talking about who worked in some B-grade films was the ex-girlfriend of star Indian cricketer, Rohit Sharma. She is none other than Sofia Hayat.
Sofia Hayat was born and raised in a conservative Muslim family in Gravesend, Kent in 1974. She is of Pakistani and Indian heritage who pursued a degree in performing arts from the University of Brighton. In her autobiography Dishonoured: How I Escaped An Arranged Marriage And Survived An Honour Killing To Become A Star, the actress talked about her problems with her conservative Muslim family. Sofia Hayat claimed that she was forced to marry in her teens in Pakistan and may have been killed too but she escaped that to reach India and begin a career in Bollywood.
She made her acting debut with Absolute Power, a British comedy show, and starred in several British shows like Footballers Wive$: Overtime, Waterloo Road, Fur TV, Jonathan Creek, and more before making her grand Bollywood debut.
She made her film debut with Cash and Curry and her first Hindi film was Diary of a Butterfly. She then went on to star in films like Naachle London, Six X, and Aksar 2. In July 2012, Hayat was named the new "Curvy Icon" by Vogue Italia, and in 2013, Hayat was named on the FHM sexiest women in the world list, positioning at 81.
She then participated in Salman Khan's television reality show Bigg Boss 7 but got evicted in the 12th week. She was rumoured to be dating Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma soon after her stint in the Bigg Boss house and also reportedly has a fling with Virat Kohli. Soon after this, Sofia Hayat surprised everyone with her big decision. In 2016, announced that she had embraced spirituality, become a nun, and adopted the name Gia Sofia Mother.
According to her Instagram bio, the actress is also a Yoga Teacher and a healer who has been listed in Forbes. The actress has a fan following of 723K on Instagram and often shares her life's whereabouts with her fans on the social media platform.
Talking about her personal life, Sofia Hayat was married to her Romanian boyfriend Vlad Stanescu in April 2017 but they separated after a year after the actress claimed that he had tried to scam her out of her London property.
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