Shilpa: London calling

The British reality television show, Celebrity Big Brother, is hoping to improve its ratings by including a Bollywood star among its contestants.

Shilpa Shetty, the 31-year-old Bollywood actress, is being “hotly tipped” to take part in a show which is watched by millions, often in the early hours of the morning when normal people should be asleep.

It will be interesting to see if she plays the “good Indian woman” or goes in for a bit of flirting and allows men on the show to flirt with her.

If reports are correct, Shilpa will be introduced live on Channel 4 television as one of 13 contestants, all deemed to be “celebrities” in their own fields.

“If you say Shilpa Shetty is being hotly tipped to be one of the celebrities, you won’t be disappointed,” a reliable source informed The Telegraph.

The introductions are due to be made at 8 pm GMT.

There is a lot at stake here for Shilpa. She has to return to Bollywood — and to India — and so she cannot behave outrageously. On the other hand, if she makes a mark, she could possibly create a more lucrative career in the West.

According to speculation in the British tabloids, which give much more space to what goes on inside Big Brother House than, say, events inside Iraq, Shilpa is being paid £300,000 (around Rs 25,800,000) for her appearance.

If true, this isn’t at all bad, considering that the Duchess of York, who is Prince Andrew’s ex — she is better known as “Fergie” — was apparently demanding £500,000 to take part.

This is the fifth series of Celebrity Big Brother, so the format is well established. There are enough cameras strategically located inside Big Brother House so that the contestants can be monitored 24×7 in what is effectively a human zoo.

Since it is a zoo, it is hoped, at least by the producers, that normal reserve will quickly dissolve, the contestants will forget they are being watched by cameras and provide riveting television by gossiping, flirting, quarrelling and doing the things people do when they think they are inhabiting a private world. Not everything can be shown, of course, and obscenities are blipped out. The contestants are set various tasks designed to add to gaiety of the nation.

Other contestants, whose names have been mentioned, include “rock rebel” Donny Tourette, 27-year-old frontman of punk band Towers of London who claims to have bedded 500 women; footballer Teddy Sheringham; Danielle Lloyd, who was stripped of her Miss Great Britain 2006 title after she was found to be dating a judge; Julie Goodyear, who is famous for playing Rover’s Return landlady Bet Lynch in the soap Coronation Street; actor Paul Michael Glaser, who played Starsky in the 1970s show Starsky And Hutch; Jermaine Jackson, formerly of the Jackson Five; and former Spurs and Chelsea defender Jason Cundy and his wife Lizzie.

There has also been speculation about the Baywatch star, David Hasselhoff, who is convinced he is the bestknown person on the planet.

Assuming Shilpa is among the contestants, what will Channel 4 expect in return? Having a Bollywood actress, especially an attractive Indian woman with the longest legs in the business, won’t be bad for ratings, plus Channel 4 likes to have an ethnic mix.

The experiment with Faria Alam, the Bangladeshi secretary who had slept (once) with Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former England football coach, was not a great success last time for she turned out to be foul-mouthed and with little to commend her.

One assumes that the producers, realising the pulling power of the Indian film industry, decided to have a Bollywood star — and then cast around for someone willing, free and brave enough to enter Big Brother House.

Each week viewers will vote one person off the show. It is unlikely Shilpa will win but she will have done well if she lasts, say, a month. The winner, the last one remaining, will emerge in three months.