London: The brouhaha over racism in the Celebrity Big Brother house has died down, but Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty continues to make news by sashaying across Britain and holding forth on the British bold and the beautiful, including on Prime Minister Tony Blair.
After Shilpa distracted the attention of MPs in the House of Commons by sitting in the visitors' gallery and meeting Blair on Thursday, she travelled to Leicester, a city in the east Midlands with a large minority of Indian origin.
By all accounts, she is clearly enjoying her post-reality show peregrinations across Britain.
For much of the time this week, she has been chaperoned by labour MP from Leicester of Goan origin, Keith Vaz.
In the process, Vaz invited snide remarks in political circles of basking in reflected glory, appearing alongside Shilpa in television appearances and elsewhere.
In between, Shilpa and her mother Sunanda grapple with the continuing stream of sponsorship and other offers, many of them running into hundreds of thousands of pounds, including to present television shows in Britain.
In Leicester, she was expected to be given a rousing welcome, not only because her treatment on the reality show touched a raw nerve among the large minority of Asians there, but also because most of them voted for her victory. And Asians there did not disappoint her.
A large number of her fans screamed for her as she made a fashionably late entrance in the Indian-dominated Belgrave area as she was whisked out of a sports car in front of the adoring crowds.
PAGE_BREAK
Many had waited for hours in freezing temperatures before she finally arrived at the Peepul Centre.
Sabras Radio, a popular local radio station, claimed to be the first in the UK to interview her, while a minor scuffle among fans outside the radio station had the local police all worked up.
The visit raised £5,000 for her new charity foundation to increase awareness of HIV and AIDS in India.
Reports from Leicester say that she "dealt with the public and media scrum with her trademark dignified calmness".
Her first reaction was: "Oh my gosh. I feel like I've come to a mini-India. Can I stay in Leicester?”
Big Brother hasn't changed me, but it's taught me never to do a reality show again. Also it's taught me how important it is to be dignified in any situation,” Shilpa said.
A local teacher said that pupils in her school had learned from Shilpa's dignified behaviour. "The children have just taken her on like a role model,” the resident said.
But not every Shilpa Shetty story in the news media is celebratory. The Sun claimed that she faced accusations in a court in India of underpaying women workers at her family's factory.
The newspaper reported: "Investigators claim staff at the bottle-top plant were paid just Rs 86 day. The minimum wage is Rs 110. Men were also being paid more than female workers, which breaks employment laws.
"If the Bollywood star is found guilty, she faces a fine of between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 for each worker,” the magazine reported
Shilpa, her father Surendra and mother are directors of Esco Closures and have been named in papers filed by investigators.
"The family has run the plant since 1982. They employ 16 staff, including 10 women, 40 miles from Mumbai. Authorities said the family had failed to reply to correspondence about the probe and could face arrest,” the magazine reported.
Comments
0 comment