When Bollywood movie star Shilpa Shetty was taunted with racist abuse in the Big Brother house, she was portrayed as a vulnerable victim.
But the glamorous 32-year-old actress, who won over Britain with her gracious manner, has now been accused of helping to ruin another woman's marriage.
For the past few months, Shilpa's constant companion has been British-based Indian businessman Raj Kundra, 31. He was at her side at the London launch of her perfume S2, was seen with her at the IIFA awards – the Indian equivalent of the Oscars – in Yorkshire and has been spotted escorting her to restaurants.
They both stayed in the same hotel in Central London on Friday night.
Raj, who has built up a string of jewellery and film in India and Britain, admits he has ended his marriage. Miss Shetty's spokespeople have given conflicting messages. Her publicist in Bombay said the pair were just friends. But another admitted: 'They are an item. But Shilpa is rather coy about it.'
One person who has no doubt about the intensity of their relationship, however, is Raj's now estranged wife Kavita, 25 – the mother of his ten-month-old daughter Deleena. The couple split in November last year, weeks after Deleena's birth on September 9, after Raj had gone to Bombay for a month to work on a script.
Kavita went to stay with her parents in the Midlands but when Raj to the UK he sent her a series of terse text messages.
'Don't bother me,' was the first one. The subsequent messages were even more cruel. Kavita, an elegant and understated woman, said: 'He made it clear that he considered our relationship was over and didn't to work on repairing our three-year marriage.'
Days later, he sent all her clothes to her parents' in black bin-liners. Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday from her sister's home in Fazeley, Staffordshire, Kavita admitted: 'The marriage had had problems. Raj was living a playboy lifestyle while I was increasingly left alone with his parents at his family home.
'He had a fling with another Bollywood actress last year.
'We had discussed making the marriage work for the sake of our daughter, but the growing influence of Bollywood and Shilpa Shetty seemed to change his mind about that.'
Kavita believes her husband may have been introduced to Shilpa through the actress's London publicist, Natasha Singh, whose mother, Teji, used to do PR work for Raj.
'Teji thought he was wonderful,' said Kavita. 'She was always promoting him at any opportunity and nominated him for loads of business awards.'
Kavita is from a more liberal Indian background than Raj. She grew up in West Bromwich with three sisters and later did a degree in accountancy. She was only 18 when she met Raj through mutual friends at a party in Delhi in 2001, when he was already a successful businessman.
But her life changed dramatically after she married him in 2003. The pair moved into his family home in New Malden, Surrey. Raj's parents were far more conservative than Kavita's and she was expected to cook for the entire family and any visitors. She was also expected to fulfil the role of the traditional Indian wife and not go out alone.
Initially she tried to adapt to her new circumstances and the first year of the marriage was happy. But in 2004 Raj made his first music video in Bollywood and their lives began to change. Raj's trips to India became longer and he stopped telling Kavita any details of his business dealings.
'He had always been mad about Bollywood. It was his dream to produce and even act in a movie,' Kavita said.
Scroll down for more…
Brutal: The text Raj Kundra sent to his wife
'At first I went with him on the trips to Bombay, where he to meet all the stars. But it was boring for me. He was out all day and night filming. In 2005 he made a movie, It Could Be You, and he got even keener on it all.
'Then last year he began filming his first proper Bollywood film, Strangers, and things became really difficult.'
It was April, and Kavita was three months pregnant. Raj had been delighted with the news. 'He came with me to appointments with doctors and midwives. He was really excited,' said Kavita.
But at the same time he was becoming increasingly enamoured by the people he was meeting in Bombay.
'He would call me when it was 5am in Bombay. I could hear laughing and partying in the background. I thought, what are you doing leading this bachelor lifestyle while I am home pregnant? I thought he should be with me. But if I said anything like that he'd snap, "I'm not talking to you," and hang up.'
Raj was still devoted enough to attend Deleena's birth. 'He even cut the umbilical cord – things were not bad at that point,' said Kavita.
But just six weeks later he told her that their marriage was over. 'He texted me when he arrived back in the UK saying, "Don't bother coming back."
'I was stunned. Then he just bombarded me with more texts saying the marriage was over.
'When I saw him again a couple of weeks later, he seemed like a different person. He had lost weight, got himself a home gym and was wearing designer clothes. He had suddenly started taking pride in himself.'
It became clear that Raj had developed a partying lifestyle that he hoped would help introduce him to the most powerful actors and celebrities in Bollywood.
He never mentioned Shilpa Shetty, however, until Kavita brought up the bullying she was receiving on Celebrity Big Brother. Kavita said: 'I liked what I saw of Shilpa and felt sorry about the treatment she was getting on the show.
'Raj and I discussed it on the phone. He agreed it was awful that she was being bullied. But he also said that her new high profile made her the new, hot actress to have in any movie.'
Then, on a weekend visit to see his daughter after Shilpa had won the Big Brother contest, Raj dropped a bombshell. Deleena sat in her car seat on a table at the Ladybridge pub in Fazeley as the couple ate their Sunday lunch.
Kavita recalls: 'He said, "Guess what? Shilpa and her mother have been asking personal questions about me – liking me for a potential husband." He said it in a proud, bragging sense. I was stunned.
'I asked if he had met her and he said he had. I asked him if he liked her and he said, "She's pretty. She's nice."
'I had been encouraging him to meet her in Bollywood because I thought she'd be good in one of his movies. But this comment was completely unexpected.'
Over the following months, however, Raj's behaviour was to become even more extreme. A business associate involved in her perfume launch said: 'It all seemed to start after the premiere of one of Shilpa's movie in May. Raj wasn't on the scene then. But a couple of weeks later, when she came to England to promote her perfume, he was all over her.
'Raj was incredibly smitten, flashing the cash and driving up to her hotel in his red sports car to take her out.
'She flew back to India at the beginning of June and when she returned a couple of weeks later, something was obviously going on. They've been inseparable, going out for dinner and going shopping together. They even went to France, to a Karl Lagerfeld party during Paris Fashion Week.
'He has recently been talking about flying off to India with her. She's meant to be staying there for a month.'
During the five or six visits Raj made to see Deleena before his relationship with Kavita disintegrated, he spoke about Shilpa constantly.
Kavita said: 'He was always talking about how pretty she was, about them going to events together. He was very excited about looking at buying a flat in Bombay close to where she lives with her parents.
'He had said he would be back in London on July 5 for the launch of the perfume. But he told me on the phone, "We're coming back later, we've been delayed." I asked, "Who's we?" He paused and said, "Oh, no one. Just me."'
In the early days of their marriage Raj had suggested they launch a perfume and set up a business together. Now Kavita was hearing about his plans to do almost exactly the same things with Shilpa.
Kavita said: 'He only sets up businesses with people he's very close to, or whom he really likes. Now I look at the pictures of them together and think, she's with my husband, she's living my life.
'She is a cultural icon in the Indian community. She can have any man she wants and there are plenty of single men about.
'While I was trying to put our marriage back together, he was talking constantly about Shilpa, as if it didn't matter what happened to us because he had found someone better, cleverer and more famous than me.
'Now he has begun pestering me for a divorce. I asked him if he planned to marry someone else but he avoided the question.'
Last Sunday, however, Raj sent Kavita a text message that read: 'Lots of rumours in Press regarding Shilpa and me. Dad says Press were standing outside house all day asking questions.' Kavita said: 'I texted back saying, "Is this your way of telling me?" He ignored my question.'
It had become clear to Kavita that Raj was growing closer not only to Shilpa, but to her family. 'He is always telling me how well he gets on with her sisters and how one sister often rings him for a chat. He told me Shilpa's mother was "really nice". He's very friendly with them and seems to know them well.
'But every time I try to find out the depth of their relationship he avoids the question or he laughs. I've never met Shilpa or tried to contact her. But she strikes me as the kind of person who goes for what she wants. But I don't think she'd just want to have a fling. I think at her age she's interested in marriage. And I think Raj wants to marry her.
'Raj has told me that he feels it would be very hard for a new wife to accept him seeing a child from a previous marriage. That's a tragedy for my daughter. 'He wants to give me only 200,000. It hurts to see him leading such a lavish lifestyle when he doesn't give us any money.
'He sold a flat in Kensington, which had both our names on it, for over 1million. But he only gave me 270,000, enough to buy the house I have now in the Midlands.'
Raj still lives with his parents, who have moved to Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
Kavita said: 'If he is planning to marry Shilpa, I would say to her, good luck. I was never the kind of wife he wanted. He always told me, "You're not ambitious."'
Kavita says she no longer recognises the man she fell in love with. 'He has changed so much since becoming involved in the Bollywood set,' she said. 'He looks and seems completely different. He is not the person I married.'
Raj Kundra told The Mail on Sunday: 'I am the licenser of a perfume with Shilpa Shetty. We met three months ago through her agent Farhath Hussain and developed the interest in the perfume. We are just good friends.
'My wife has always tried to link me to any woman I have been associated with professionally. She is very insecure. I am divorcing her on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour – that she never supported my interests or wanted to go out with me.'
He confirmed that he had ended the marriage by text message and sent her clothes to her in black bin-liners.
Dale Bhagwagar, Shilpa's publicist in Bombay, said she and Raj were just friends, but added: 'Shilpa is single and ready to mingle. When she gets engaged to anyone, when she has found the right man, she'll announce it.
Book Talk
55