Shirley Setia is a New Zealand singer and actress known for her work in the

Indian film The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, ...

and music industries. Born in

Daman, India Daman (; Indo-Portuguese; ''Damao'') is the capital city of the Indian union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is a municipal council situated in the Daman district of the union territory. Daman Ganga River divides Da ...

in the former union territory of

Daman and Diu Daman and Diu (; ) was a former union territory in northwestern India. With an area of , it was the smallest administrative subdivision of India on the mainland. The territory comprised two districts, Damaon and Dio island, geographically s ...

, she immigrated with her family to Auckland and came to attention as a YouTube musician uploading covers of

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...

songs while still a student at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

. Setia subsequently featured in the ''Forbes'' magazine, where she was referred to as "Bollywood's Next Big Singing Sensation". Setia made her acting debut with 2020 Hindi film '' Maska'' which released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

. She made her big screen debut with ''

Nikamma ''Nikamma'' () is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Sabbir Khan. It is a remake of the 2017 Telugu film ''Middle Class Abbayi'' and stars Abhimanyu Dassani, Shirley Setia and Shilpa Shetty. ''Nikamma'' was released ...

'' in 2022 and also starred in the

Telugu film Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telugu cinema is based in Film Nagar, ...

'' Krishna Vrinda Vihari'', which released on 23 September 2022.

Early life

Setia was born in

and raised in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

, New Zealand. A graduate student from the

and marketing and publicity intern at

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a ...

, Setia took part in a contest conducted by T-Series. Her

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

entry was recorded in her bedroom while she was wearing pyjamas, which earned her the nickname "Pyjama popstar" by the ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

''. Setia was eventually declared the winner.

Career

Singing career

After working in a weekly radio show and taking part in local competitions in

, Setia performed in her first concerts in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

and

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

in India in 2016. ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine's Rob Cain wrote a feature on her and her future goals, in which he stated that "Bollywood's Next Big Singing Sensation Just Might Be This Tiny Kiwi". she was also acknowledged as India's YouTube sensation by the ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

'' and as one of New Zealand's biggest international artists by

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the ...

. , she has 3.71 million subscribers on YouTube with 308 million views. She was invited by

as a 'YouTube Creator' to perform live in YouTube FanFest held in Mumbai in 2016 and 2017.

Acting career

Setia made her acting debut with 2020 film '' Maska'' which released on

. Her next film was ''

'' released in June 2022, a remake of 2017

Middle Class Abbayi ''Middle Class Abbayi'' (), also known as ''MCA'', is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film written and directed by Venu Sriram, Hrishikesh Bhargava and produced by Dil Raju. The film stars Nani, Sai Pallavi and Bhumika Chawla. Dev ...

''. She made her Telugu film debut with '' Krishna Vrinda Vihari'' which released in September 2022.

Discography

Filmography

Films

Web series

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Setia, Shirley 1995 births Living people People from Daman district, India Indian emigrants to New Zealand Musicians from Auckland New Zealand people of Indian descent New Zealand YouTubers New Zealand women pop singers New Zealand film actresses New Zealand web series actresses University of Auckland alumni Filmi singers Actresses of Indian descent Expatriate musicians in India New Zealand expatriate actresses in India Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema 21st-century New Zealand actresses 21st-century New Zealand women singers Music YouTubers