Shilpa Shetty is back in the news in Britain — 12 years after she became the UK’s sweetheart after being subjected to a torrent of racist abuse on Celebrity Big Brother but then going on to win the reality television show.
The reason why viewers have been reminded of what Shilpa had to go through in 2007 is because Channel 4 has just broadcast a controversial three-part documentary on her late chief tormenter, Jade Goody.
The latter ganged up with two other equally foul-mouthed young women, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara, and baited the Bollywood actress — much to the horror and growing disgust of up to 7 million viewers.
Sitting through a replay of past events in Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain has been an uncomfortable experience for many people, especially as the pro-Brexit campaign has encouraged anti-foreigner sentiment in sections of society.
At one point Jade is shown screaming at Shilpa: “You may be a princess where you come from but here you are a housemate like everyone else. You are so far up your own a*** you can smell your own s***. You are f***ing ridiculous.”
Use of four-letter swear words by the gang of three was commonplace. “Shilpa Poppadom” was one of Jade’s politer expressions for the actress, whose Indian accent was mimicked. Danielle called Shilpa a “dog”, ridiculed her culinary skills, suggested Indians were thin because their food made them ill and urged the actress to “***k off home”.
Shilpa won countless fans by retaining her dignity and responding to Jade’s outburst by telling her: “Do you know what? Your claim to fame is this.”
The night Shilpa Shetty won Celebrity Big Brother, on January 28, 2007 (Yui Mok/PA)
More than 400 individual complaints, a record, were registered with Ofcom, the TV watchdog. The show caused uproar in India, disrupted UK-Indian diplomatic relations and ruined an important visit to India by Gordon Brown, then chancellor of the exchequer. He later effectively offered an apology on behalf of the nation by meeting Shilpa, as did Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Queen, while the cause of the actress was championed in Parliament by the Labour MP Keith Vaz.
Jade was dropped by her advertising sponsors as she slid overnight from being a popular role model for working class girls to the “most hated woman in Britain”. She died in 2009 from cervical cancer, leaving behind two sons, Bobby and Freddie, now aged 16 and 14. She redeemed herself to a great extent by making up with Shilpa and by recording a final reality show, documenting her terminal illness and encouraging women to have smear tests which she herself had been too busy to take.
Channel 4’s documentary has been condemned widely as exploitative and “voyeurism at its very best (meaning worst)!”
“This is absolutely horrendous to watch!” was a typical comment. Another viewer said: “The Shilpa bullying is so uncomfortable to watch again. I remember it so clearly when it was first broadcast and it somehow seems 100x worse in 2019.”
It was suggested that “Reality TV has got a lot to answer for”.
A number of people made appeals on Jade’s behalf: “Let the poor lassie rest in peace — her poor kids don’t need to hear vile remarks about their dead mother.”
Channel 4 could have just as easily examined the dramatic impact Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 had on Shilpa’s life. She was 31 when she entered the show on January 3, 2007, describing herself modestly as “one of the most well known film actors in Indian cinema”, adding, “They have simply touted me as the Indian Angelina Jolie.”
“Chicken curry rules,” she announced when she emerged the winner on January 28.
She was very Gandhian in forgiving her detractors.
Shilpa was apparently paid a fee of £300,000 by Channel 4, and made perhaps a similar sum by selling her story afterwards to the tabloids. Her agent then was the “kiss & tell” PR supremo Max Clifford, who died in prison in 2017 after being sentenced to eight years in 2014 for unrelated sex offences.
Shilpa met a smitten British Indian businessman Raj Kundra and in July threatened to take legal action against his estranged wife Kavita for suggesting the actress was responsible for breaking up their marriage. Kundra, Shilpa insisted, was merely a business partner, “a part of my team”.
Shilpa and Kundra, who were married in November 2009, have a son and are settled in Mumbai.
