Bollywood News

Indian tourism office in Britain invited Goody and her other friends who have abused Shilpa Shetty to come to India and experience the healing nature of the country. Hindustan Times reports:

India just cannot get over its Gandhigiri hangover. The India Tourism office in London has invited Jade Goody and her friends who have been tormenting Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in a British reality TV show to visit India and experience the country’s “healing nature”.

In an open letter addressed to Goody and her friends through advertisements in leading London dailies, including The Times and The Guardian, the India Tourism said, “Once your current commitments are over, may we invite you to experience the healing nature of India. We have a modern thriving culture and offer an amazing wealth of sights and sounds, tastes and textures making our country a place like no other.”

It didn’t matter that Goody and her friends are cocooned on the show with no access to newspapers and so, did not get to see its ad.

But that shouldn’t matter. After all that sniffles and abuses, there were hugs and kisses as the contestants apologised to Shilpa for the alleged racist attacks and Shilpa said she had forgiven them.

Jade Goody, the defamed Big Brother STAR!!! is going through a tough time. This twenty five year old dental nurse worked in three television series for Living TV. Now, the channel has decided to stop working with her. She lost her endorsements. Worst of all, when she returned home, she found out that the window glasses have been smashed by angry people. In an interview with Matthew Wright she told that she has been thinking about visiting India.

Before appearing in Big Brother, Shilpa Shetty was a B-grade actress making small ripples in the ponds of Bollywood. After Big Brother, this thirty one year old actress is making waves every where. The racial abuse she has undergone turned her into a star overnight. UK, USA, wherever it is, Shetty is getting huge attention. Within few days, the Big Brother will end and by this time analysts have estimated that Shilpa Shetty would be the winner. Although the show is going on a tedious manner outside the buzz is going on. As soon as , Shetty comes out from the Big Brother studio, she would going to face a huge media storm in UK. Guardian reports:

Almost two weeks after incidents of allegedly racist bullying of Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother led to an international furore, events inside the reality TV studio may have slumped into soporific tedium. But outside the frenzy shows little sign of abating.

Tomorrow evening , the Channel 4 series will stagger to its close, with Shetty favourite to be voted its winner.

While Jade Goody, her chief tormentor, fights to save her career, and Channel 4′s beleaguered executives struggle to salvage their battered reputations over their handling of the controversy, Shetty will emerge to a blizzard of demands for her story and offers of lucrative endorsements.

But if Shetty is unlikely to be prepared for her new-found popularity, she will also, when she steps from the house, find herself at the centre of a uniquely British media storm that has as much to do with tabloid newspaper and PR rivalries as it does with the career of a pleasant young Indian woman. Certainly, in the words of agent Jazz Barton, who negotiated her participation in the show, Shetty is “hot stuff”. Ms Barton said that she had been receiving 45 telephone calls an hour since the controversy began, half of them offers of work.

Although Big Boss has made Shilpa Shetty very popular, it would not uplift her position as actress in Bollywood. She has already been chosen to be the next bond girl. She is now getting offers to do advertisements for UK companies. Her career as an actress may not be very successful but she could be a very successful model in UK because the she is liked by the Asian community which is a big market for UK business organizations. Now, the million dollar question is what would Shilpa do? Should she return to India or stay in UK. That is for her to decide and we to watch and enjoy (with POPCORN!!).

Shilpa Shetty is not married yet and that is why her mother is now the closest person to her. She even cried for her mother as she felt alone. Now her mother, Sunanda Shetty is coming London to support Shilpa.

Mangalorean.Com wrote:

Shilpa Shetty’s mother Sunanda has finally left to be near her daughter in London. The actress, taking part in Britain‘s reality show “Celebrity Big Brother”, has been subjected to racial slurs on the show.

“I am going to give her support. And to speak on her behalf if so required,” Sunanda told IANS before leaving the country.

Sunanda is dismayed by opinion that her daughter is participating in the show for money.

“By the grace of god, Shilpa has been successful enough. She has seen enough money during her career. She needn’t go for a game show to make ends meet. We’ve enough to keep us well fed. We don’t need any more…

I also do not believe that Shilpa is taking part in Big Brother for money. However, I surely believe that Shilpa went there to revive her career. She is in the twilight of her Bollywood career.

A few days ago, when Big Brother started very few people could believe that Shilpa Shetty could actually survive in the show for such a long time. Now, it seems that Shilpa may actually win Big Brother.

News & Star wrote:

Channel 4 was forced to cancel all the votes that have been placed so far and restart the process.

It says refunds will be given to all those who have already voted.

Shilpa, whose win would be good news for Channel 4 following the race row, is favourite to win this year’s controversial series.

Endemol, the TV giant which makes Big Brother, released a statement saying: “We apologise to viewers and feel the best way to rectify it is to cancel the vote so far and reopen the voting.”

It nice to see that Shilpa has become a hot favorite to win the show. It will make many Asians very happy.

Shilpa Shetty is still doing great in Big Brother. She is not out yet and surviving in a good way. The racism affair only increased her popularity. Channel 4 has got a great twist in this season’s Big Brother thanks to Jane Goody. Now, due to a mistake made by Channel 4, many British viewers that Channel 4 was trying to help Shilpa stay alive in the reality show.

Apunkachoice wrote:

The Bollywood star was one of five contestants in line for the boot. Phone numbers to evict her four rivals were shown in graphics on screen.

A show spokesman said it was a “genuine mistake”. Endemol said, “We will reimburse anyone who wants their money back and all profits will go to charity.”

The four other contestants up for eviction are Dirk Benedict, Jo O’Meara, Ian Watkins and Cleo Rocos.

One viewer said: “When you looked at the screen there was no way that you could vote Shilpa out. It made you wonder whether Channel 4 had done it on purpose to try and save her.”

So, tonight we will see if Shilpa survives or get out. Most probably, she will survive. In this season’s Big Brother, Shilpa Shetty has got the most attention and good sympathy too.

Dr R Neerunjun Gopee has written an interesting article titled: Shilpa Shetty: It’s your culture, stupid! In Mauritius Times. Here, he had made interesting insights about the whole matter of abusing Shilpa Shetty by Jane Goody. Jane Goody comes from working class background and she showed her working class behavior. In fact, many people in Asia have a weird notion that the west is good and the east is bad. The matter of Shilpa Shetty and Jane Goody has put into this notion in acid test and the result is:

In Celebrity Big Brother, class prejudice and racism was brought face to face with poise, beauty, grace and culture. Shilpa won. Naturally.

So, we should not imitate the west blindly and remember this example.

Shilpa Shetty and Jade Goody are now making it to the front pages of all the major news paper in East and West. Both of them are getting lots of positive and negative supports from people of many countries. Looking at their rising popularity Indian film director Shashilal K Nair is planning to make a film where Jade and Shilpa would play the leading role.The Hindu quoted:

Shashilal K Nair, with more than ten Bollywood films to his credit, thinks Celebrity Big Brother enemies Goody and Shetty have what it takes for a box-office smash.

And the award-winning film-maker hopes that the fiery arguments between the housemates that triggered a race row will translate into big bucks on the big screen. Nair, whose films include the controversial ‘Ek Chhotisi Love Story’, told newsmen last night, “I have a script which I would like to cast for them. I can’t reveal much about the plot but it is quite funny and they would be the main protagonists. I am meeting Shilpa’s mother on Friday and I will speak with Jade’s agent in a couple of days. Shilpa and I have been friends for a long time.”

He said the plot would be 80 per cent fighting and 20 per cent friendship and is convinced that Jade has what it takes. “She was brilliant in Big Brother and after I watched the interviews with her I saw there are two sides to her. The side that was crying and the side that made someone cry. I think she has potential.”

Now, the million dollar question: Do you think after what they had been through together, would Jade and Shilpa be able to work together? That’s for us to see and Mr. Nair to find out!!!

Shilpa Shetty is still getting supports from people of different class and occupassion. Recently, threepopular directors of Bollywood have recently joined in the list expressing their views over the racism issue in the popular television show Celebrity Big Brother in UK. A Glamsham report quoted the speech of these three directors.

I don’t think Shilpa Shetty is passé any more. Her participation and presence on the international show has been very effective in bringing out an issue that has been so often placed under the cover. My respect for her as a woman of caliber and substance has definitely increased, so has my entire perception of her as a person. I have now begun to see her as a great combination of beauty and brains. Besides she’s been looking fabulous on the show,” says filmmaker Suneel Darshan, who had worked with the actress in JAANWAR. Suneel feels that her popularity on the show will definitely translate into endorsements and films that are likely to come her way. “It has given a big boost to her image, no doubt,” he says.

Director Madhur Bhandarkar echoes Suneel’s point of view. “The kind of opposition and problem that Shilpa encountered does happen on reality shows because there’s pent up anger and a sense of one-upmanship. Moreover, it has become a fashion to use abusive language against Indians but the way she tackled the situation speaks a lot of her intelligence. Her image as an actress and the way she is perceived has definitely changed. I am definitely impressed with her,” he says

Director Tanuja Chandra on the other hand is amused by the kind of attention and noise that has been made over the whole issue but she too agrees that Shilpa stands to benefit immensely from the show. “I don’t think the issue demanded so much attention as to necessitate the intervention of big political personalities like Tony Blair but the attention that Shilpa has got out of the show has certainly served the purpose of her participating in it. She should now aim to win the game as far as possible. One thing is for sure, it will certainly not take away from her popularity, on the contrary it has only added to her career prospects. This was the right step at the right time in her career,” she says.

Shilpa Sheety seems reaching at the peak of the mountain with her talent and beauty seen the Celebrity Big Brother show. She tackled the situation of being racially abused by some of the other celebrities in the show. Now, Shilpa is the hot topic in both India and England. What More She could wish!

Gordon Brown may be sympathetic towards Shilpa Shetty but it seems that some Indians are extremely unhappy about the Big Brother matter. I found two news items in which writers have bitterly attacked Shilpa Shetty about the way she handled Jade Goody episode in Big Brother UK.

Balaji Reddy wrote:

Shipla failed to carry herself. Before coming to a country like UK, first you must learn to avoid ‘ditches’ that can create problem for you. Shilpa, an immature Indian Bollywood woman fell in it and called fowl for help. NRI expatriates in the Western nations understood how naive and immature these women are in India especially in Bollywood .

If you carry yourself with dignity and recognize problem areas, you can avoid trouble. Shilpa now is a total embarrassment for the Indian community in UK. She should go back to India’s Bollywood and never return back to UK. It is a lesson for Indian Bollywood ‘dancing around the trees’ heroes and heroines too – life in West is real. You will be attacked if you try to excel. If you cannot take it, do not bother coming in the West. Stay in Mumbai and keep dancing and singing around the trees.

Sharp reaction- isn’t it? Well, I feel sympathetic towards Balaji. After all, Shilpa is going to come back to Bollywood and get heroic welcome. However, thousands of Indians will have to stay in UK and suffer the torment that Indians are cry babies.

Then, Sonia Chopra wrote:

Why Shilpa went to UK? Why she has to make a big roar. Why these Bollywood jokers cannot preserve their own culture? Why can India cinema go beyond the medieval age ‘dancing and singing’? Why are girls in Bollywood called item numbers?

The fact is Indians who live in India unlike the Chinese and Japanese have become less nationalistic. They are greedy and like make it quick without sacrificing much.

Talk to an expatriate India living in America (in India they call NRI- non Resident Indian). Ask these person what he had to go through to establish himself or herself in the West. In India people think NRI means easy money. It is not. Life is tougher for Indians in the West that Indians in India.

Shilpa should have thought several times before going to UK. What she went through, every expatriate Indian goes through in the Western nation. But you have to shrewd. Take it in the chin and move on – not make a big hoopla about it.

Some serious question? I wonder what Shilpa and her friends have to say about that. I surely would like to see that this debate goes on for the time being.

Jade Goody might have been an obscuring name out of UK until last week but thanks to her alleged racist comments against Shilpa Shetty in the celebrity show, Big Brother UK, she has become one of the most familiar names in the media today. Just open every big TV channel- BBC, CNN, Sky TV- you will see the face of Jade Goody. She has been voted out of Big Brother UK for her bad behavior but she is still making the media headlines in and around of UK and India.

There has been a strong back lash against Goody in UK. Thousands of people complained against her behavior. Sponsors are now backing out of her. Even Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, spoke against her misconduct. It seems that she is losing a lot because of her bad behavior against Shilpa Shetty. Wrong! Yes, if you think this way then I must say that you are dead wrong.

Why? Just think of what stars crave for- media limelight and publicity. And, believe me, Jade Goody has got too much of that in the last 10 days. Just do a Google search on her name and you will end up with about 2,500,000 search results. That amount of result for a person who is relatively unknown outside of UK. I was going through the Wikipedia entry on Jade Goody. Her fame and income seems to be entirely concentrated in the UK. Thanks to the controversy in Big Brother now, she is a celebrity in the international stage. I think that this is her best achievement. Don’t believe me? Just check out Washington Post. Brits Oust `Brother’ Racism-Row Figure- this is the report published in Washington Times.

British bully of Bollywood queen battered by backlash- published in Gulf Times. So, Jade Goody is now a familiar name in all the continents on earth.

After few weeks, the storm in the tea cup will die down both in the UK and India and then Jade Goody will feature in the media as a celebrity. Most people will even forget her abuse of Shilpa Shetty (the fans have extremely short memory when it comes to the negative sides of the celebrities). Jade will become richer and more famous.

I do not know if Jade Goody has abused Shilpa intentionally or not but I have to say that Jade will get the best benefit out of this controversy. She has apologized and this would really make her the good guy to her fans. So, she just needs to continue this good guy and repentant image and then make the best out of her new found publicity.