Shefali Shah is a Bollywood actress, model and painter. She was born on 22 May 1972 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Her zodiac sign is Gemini. She completed her schooling from Arya Vidya Mandir, Santa Cruz, Mumbai. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Mithibai College, Mumbai.

Her father, Sudhakar Shetty was an employee in the RBI. Her mother, Shobha Shetty is a Homeopathy doctor.

She is married to Vipul Amritlal Shah; he is a film producer and director. The couple has two sons, Aryaman and Maurya. 

Shefali’s favourites

Shefali’s hobbies are writing blogs, travelling, watching movies, cooking and reading books. 

Her favourite painter is Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. 

Her favourite book is Meryl Streep’s memoir.  

Interesting facts about Shefali

Shefali Shah had a passion for art, singing and dancing since childhood. She is also trained in Bharatanatyam.

Shefali performed in Gujarati stage shows in her school at the age of 10. 

Shefali’s debut

She made her first appearance in a television show ‘Aarohan’ in the year 1993.

Shefali has worked in many Hindi TV serials like 'Ramayana' (2008), 'Hasratein', 'Naya Nukkad' etc.

In 1998, Shefali started her Bollywood career with the Hindi film 'Satya'. She rose to fame after starring as Manoj Bajpayee's wife in the film.

She trained for six months at ‘Last Ship’, an artist's residency in Bandra.

In 2001, Shefali worked in Mira Nair’s film ‘Monsoon Wedding’.

Playing the role of a mother

At the age of just 21, Shefali started playing the role of a mother.

According to her, she was almost half the age (32 years) of Amitabh Bachchan when she played his wife in the film 'Waqt: The Race Against Time', while in the same film, her on-screen son Akshay Kumar was 37 years old at the time.

She has also worked in many short films and web series.

In the year 2005, she played a small role in Aparna Sen's English drama ‘15 Park Avenue’.

Shefali’s love for paintings

In the year 2016, she took 3 months training in painting from Metufora Studio Arts, Spain.

Shefali often exhibits her paintings in many exhibitions and galleries. Her paintings are also available for purchase online.

She considers Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock as her inspirations.

In the year 2019, she starred in the Netflix web series 'Delhi Crime', which is based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape (Nirbhaya).

Shefali’s filmography

Some of Shefali’s popular movies are, Karthik Calling Karthink (2010), Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), Brothers (2015), Gandhi (2007), Once Again (2018), Juice (2017), Lakshmi (2014), Doctor G (2022) and Jalsa (2022). 

Shefali can speak fluently in 5 different languages namely Telugu, Hindi, English, Marathi and Gujarati.

In the year 2021, Shefali Shah opened a restaurant named ‘Jalsa’ in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Shefali Shah is an animal lover, and she also has a pet dog.

Awards

In the year 2001, she was awarded the Best Actress State Award.

Shefali Shah has been honoured with the prestigious National Film Award. 

Latest film

Shefali’s performance in the 2022 film ‘Darlings’ was highly praised. Alia Bhatt was also a lead actress in the film. The film dealt with issues of domestic violence.