She has been romancing controversy with panache. The gossips sniggered about her declining film career. Certain motor-mouthed colonial co-contestants screeched about her grubby fingers. And local prudes turned abusive about a foreign peck on her cheek. The target of such affection unerringly turned each allegation to her advantage: in recent months actress Shilpa Shetty has gone from fish bowl show to international celebritydom, trumped reality television rivals with merciless saintliness and emerged as a fearless advocate for free expression.

When The Telegraph catches up with Shetty at a dubbing studio in Versova, Mumbai, she couldn’t be on a bigger high. “Controversy seems to love me. But I have had enough. I had done nothing wrong and I decided to take a stand,” she says, referring to the kiss-and-swoop by Hollywood actor Richard Gere at an AIDS awareness event for truck drivers and the ruckus that followed. “A bunch of 17-year-old boys even disrupted my shoot of Metro on the last day. They took out a morcha, they thought they’d scare me,” she says.

Obviously those guys hadn’t watched Shetty’s jackpot winning turn on Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother (CBB). Fresh from one battle, Shetty picked up the gauntlet they threw at her. “I am not going to be cowed down by a lunatic fringe. Besides, this involved another person, someone who has come to another country and done so much for AIDS awareness,” says Shetty.

According to Shetty, a mole hill became a mountain only because of Bollywood’s famous song-dance routines and a sari that got underfoot. Apparently, unfamiliar with Hindi, Gere decided to communicate with the audience by doing a turn out of his own film, Shall We Dance. “The whole controversy was so silly. Richard doesn’t know Hindi but he knows our film songs and dances are popular. He just decided on an impromptu performance,” she explains.

Gere ended with a sweeping embrace of Shetty at just the moment that she tripped on her sari. “That is why my pose was so awkward and the whole thing came off looking OTT (over the top),” Shetty gestures exasperatedly. She later called a press conference and scolded the media for playing up the incident.

Incidentally, few people know that Shetty donated her entire winnings (Rs 3 crore? “I am not commenting on the amount”) from CBB to the Gere Foundation India Trust Foundation for AIDS awareness campaign.

Even so, the police trailed her protectively for three days till she insisted they withdraw. “I have done nothing wrong. I am living in my own country, living in freedom,” she says, smiling.

Indeed, the unbelievably slender Shetty has plenty to smile about. As is common knowledge, signing on for CBB as the first Indian on the show that was looking to attract the Asian community changed her life forever.

“Asians are looked at now with a little more respect. I have done what no Asian has done before in the UK, become universally popular. And I have done it by being me. The only clause in the contract was: be yourself. In the UK no one knew me as an actress, they knew me only through CBB. The UK audience loved me for me, not for my films. It’s rare that a celebrity is liked for being herself. It was a shock to some people who thought that an Indian couldn’t be that progressive, fluent in English, be fun and still have culture and values,” Shetty says. “I got 67 per cent of all the votes. Every station backed me, it was about right or wrong (Jade Goody’s controversially abusive comments about Shetty are well known) and not about black or white. It was not just Asians who were voting for me.”

That would be borne out by the pandemonium her visit to the House of Commons created. “They threw a lunch for me and the funniest thing was they had a dessert in my name, Shilpa’s Delight,” she chortles, confessing to a sinful sweet tooth. “What was it? I don’t know, something to do with custard and fruit.”

What was the strangest thing to happen on the show? “Me, winning! That was the whackiest thing ever,” she laughs again.

Clad in jeans, a t-shirt and golden ballerina moccasins, Shetty is dubbing for Anurag Basu’s Metro which post-CBB is being promoted as a Shilpa Shetty starrer. Coming up next is Anil Sharma’s Apne, with the three Deols — Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby. Both films are being marketed to a wider audience because of Shetty’s second coming but she retorts she never went away. “When I signed up for Big Brother I was in the thick of these films, so anyone who thinks I had no work and therefore went to do a TV show stands corrected.”

TV? That was a risk. Or is it a case of no guts no glory? “I believe with guts you also need dignity. So if it costs me my dignity, instead of being extremely gutsy, I would rather be called a wimp.”

No one expected Shetty to last long on CBB, much less to win. “Now, all my dates are out of schedule because of CBB. My entire life is out of gear because of CBB. But I am not complaining.”

Of course not. Life couldn’t be better for the 31-year-old actress who is all set to launch a new perfume in the UK (all very hush-hush right now but it will be “very, very big”), is house hunting in London and mulling over an entertainment career in the UK. “I have been offered a mainstream film and two crossover films, besides offers from television,” says Shetty. Her new fame has also helped to market her current films overseas. She’s topped it off by gifting herself an ice-white Land Cruiser.

While she was amused by the British paparazzi stalking her (“that was fun”), she is less enthused by the local press. “The Indian media are very, very cynical. I was called a has-been, an item girl, a B-grade actress. People in the UK did not know me so they obviously asked people in India. The first negative report overseas was written by an Indian. A lot of people made a lot of money on my name but I was not going to dignify any of that dirt by reacting,” she says, asking a passing studio hand for coffee.

She is unstarry, unfussy and a little prissy (an expletive within earshot has her rolling her eyes). Up close Shetty exudes more youth than oomph. Her appearance belies her 15-year film career that began with Baazigar in 1993. Her career highlights included a duet with rumoured ex-boyfriend Akshay Kumar (Main Khiladi Tu Anari) in thigh-high boots and an underplayed performance in films such as Dhadkan and Phir Milenge.

It’s not just those endless legs, “I have insured my whole body for a hell of a lot of premium,” the sex symbol declares. Did she think her nose job was necessary? “I have never hidden that, but it’s old hat now. Asking me to comment on it is as silly as asking if I thread my eyebrows.” That is something about Shetty. She does not duck a single question.

Fellow Bunt (the Tulu-speaking community in Karnataka) Aishwarya Rai just got married. Who is Shetty’s ideal man? “Someone who is mentally and spiritually compatible and can give me security, be it financial or social. And someone who is very proud of me,” she replies promptly. “The problem is that actors have images and mine has become larger than life. Men are only intimidated by me.”

Would she settle for an arranged marriage? “I really don’t care. There has to be chemistry (snaps her fingers). I believe in destiny, what’s meant to be will be. And I am expecting good things.”

For now she is just trying to cope with the deluge. “All my life I have wanted this (present success) and now I have it, I don’t know where to begin. There is so much happening, even God cannot help me!”