Some believe that Shilpa, who is said to have been paid Rs 3.5 crore for the role, is too clever for some of the B-grade British celebrities. When the old Ken Russell was feeling cold at night, she wrapped him with an extra blanket. Her rivals laughed at the altruism but the audience saw in her a caring young lady. Again, as a victim of racial slur, she shed tears and, in return, won millions of hearts.

“She knows what she is doing. She will shred the nerves of all the other women in that house until even Cleo pulls back her frozen lips and shows the fangs behind her witless Mona Lisa smile”, wrote the feminist Germaine Greer, who herself controversially walked out of the Celebrity Big Brother in 2005, complaining of bullying.

Shilpa’s housemates Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara ganged up against the Bollywood actor and made fun of Shilpa’s accent. They were not prepared to pronounce her name and were reluctant to eat food cooked by her. They described her a “Paki bird” and called her a “dog.” Classic reality TV. An amused Asian woman put it best: “Don’t the British know what a female dog is called?”

Meanwhile, the folks at Channel 4 have little reason to agonise. The controversy has done wonders to what was until now a literally fading show. It drew its third largest audience of the series on Tuesday night. Its evening highlights averaged 4.5 million viewers, up from 3.9 million last Tuesday. In the first week, Shetty was often shown lurking in the distant background. Now she was being regularly captured in the big close-up.

... contd.