Shilpa Shetty Kundra (born 8 June 1975) is an Indian actor, television personality and entrepreneur. She made her debut at eighteen in the thriller Baazigar and has since appeared in more than fifty films in Hindi and South Indian languages. In 2007 she won the British reality show Celebrity Big Brother, which made her known well beyond India, and she later built a second career around yoga, fitness and television talent shows.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Shilpa Shetty Kundra |
| Born | 8 June 1975, Mangaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Age | 51 |
| Occupation | Actor, television judge, entrepreneur |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Known for | Baazigar, Dhadkan, Phir Milenge, Life in a… Metro |
| Education | St. Anthony’s Girls’ High School, Chembur; Podar College, Mumbai |
| Spouse | Raj Kundra (m. 2009) |
| Children | 2 (Viaan and Samisha) |
Early Life
Shetty was born in Mangaluru into a Tulu-speaking Bunt family and grew up in Chembur, Mumbai. Her parents, Surendra and Sunanda Shetty, ran a business making tamper-proof caps for the pharmaceutical industry. Her younger sister, Shamita Shetty, is also an actor. At school she trained in Bharatanatyam, captained the volleyball team and earned a black belt in karate. She started modelling at sixteen with an advertisement for the soft drink Limca while she was at Podar College.
Career
Her first release was Abbas–Mustan’s Baazigar (1993), in which she played the sister whose murder drives the plot, opposite Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. She was the lead in the action comedy Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994) with Akshay Kumar, and through the 1990s she worked in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films; the song “Main Aai Hoon U.P. Bihar Lootne” from Shool became one of the decade’s biggest dance hits.
The romantic drama Dhadkan (2000) gave her a major success as a lead, and Rishtey (2002) brought praise for her comic turn as a fisherwoman. In Phir Milenge (2004) she played a successful advertising executive who is sacked after testing positive for HIV, a performance widely regarded as her best. Life in a… Metro and Apne followed in 2007.
In January 2007 she entered the house of the British show Celebrity Big Brother. Remarks made about her by other contestants, including Jade Goody, drew tens of thousands of complaints to the broadcasting regulator and set off a debate about racism that reached the British and Indian parliaments. Shetty stayed calm throughout and won the series with 63 per cent of the final vote.
She released a yoga DVD in 2008 and has since become one of India’s most visible advocates of yoga and healthy eating, with a fitness app and books including The Great Indian Diet. From 2009 to 2015 she and her husband held a stake in the IPL team Rajasthan Royals. She has been a judge on the television shows Nach Baliye, Super Dancer and India’s Got Talent. After fourteen years away from lead roles she returned to films with Hungama 2 (2021), Nikamma and Sukhee (2023), and played a police officer in Rohit Shetty’s web series Indian Police Force (2024).
Personal Life
She married the British-Indian businessman Raj Kundra on 22 November 2009. Their son, Viaan, was born in 2012 and their daughter, Samisha, through surrogacy in 2020. Kundra was arrested in 2021 in a case concerning the production of adult films for mobile apps and was released on bail; he denies the charges. Shetty has spoken about living with an autoimmune condition that caused several miscarriages.
Selected Filmography
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Shilpa Shetty born?
Shilpa Shetty was born on 8 June 1975 in Mangaluru, Karnataka, India and is 51 years old.
What is Shilpa Shetty known for?
Known for: Baazigar, Dhadkan, Phir Milenge, Life in a… Metro.
Featured image: Shilpa Shetty on the green carpet at the IIFA Awards, MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, July 2017. Photo by Laura Lee Dooley, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
