Oh Brother, race to riches for Shilpa
LONDON/MUMBAI: Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty sought to put a racist bullying row behind her after winning Britain's Celebrity Big Brother, a triumph tipped to elevate her career beyond Bollywood.
The 31-year-old also won a cash prize of 100,000,and more publicity than she could have imagined due to the bullying she endured at the hands of three of her housemates which caused an international uproar.
However, Shilpa was quick to play down allegations that she had been the victim of racial abuse. "Things happen and people make mistakes and we are all human beings and we are all fallible," she said. British Asians threw their full weight behind Shilpa.
Boos muzzled
Some members of the live audience outside the house in Elstree, north London, booed as Shilpa emerged from her 26-day incarceration and the producers of the programme were forced to block sound on the live telecast, blaming 'a technical fault' and a caption saying "sorry for the loss of sound".
Live sound was only restored once fireworks celebrating the finale lit up the sky and drowned out the boos, raising questions about whether the whole show, including the result, had been stage-managed.
Will fame follow fortune?
Apart from bagging Rs90 lakh by winning the crown, Shilpa Shetty has collected Rs45 crore in interview contracts and endorsements abroad. She is also rumoured to have bagged a Hollywood film.
But will her career turn around back home in too? Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann-Erickson India, says, "Firstly Big Brother is an international show and the audiences who judged the final verdict were not Indian. Moreover, the show is not even popular in our country. Therefore, if the brand value of Shilpa Shetty goes up in India, it will be because of Indian media drooling over her success."
Shiv Shakti
