People News
Shetty and Goody: Caste, class and culture
By Stone Martindale Jan 20, 2007, 2:12 GMT
Bollywood Actress Shilpa Shetty EPA/MONEY SHARMA
“Big Brother”, a popular show that has contestants living together in a house, opened a can of well concealed worms by having a Bollywood actress from a wealthy clan, used to servants, paired with some low excuse of a Brit named Jade Goody, akin to Britney Spears without the talent, if you can imagine, and it has upset the British who seemed to have had enough reality for a while.
Shilpa Shetty is undeniably beautiful, and her different sounding name was ridiculed by her house mates.
Angry viewers wrote in to the British media watchdog with complaints - even British leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown stepped in to the fight to declare their intolerance of racism and say this would not affect relations with India.
Indian politicians and media experts had a more pragmatic and dismissive approach to the nonsense.
“The whole point of these shows is to be controversial and increase viewer ship as fast as possible,” says New Delhi based media columnist Shubhra Gupta. She points out that it’s unlikely Shilpa Shetty went in without preperation and awareness of some amount of class based controversy.
There is the old chestnut that any publicity is good publicity. “The show’s made Shilpa Shetty a big name in Britain. And there is likely to be a resuscitation of interest in her in Bollywood, where she hasn’t been doing lead roles for a while,” says Gupta.
Then there is the payday for Shetty. Indian media reports say the actress is getting 350,000 pounds for her appearance. And though a key “Big Brother” sponsor, pulled out over accusations of racism, it won't have a significant impact.
“If one sponsor has pulled out, I’m sure others are lining up, given the number of eyeballs the show is getting,” says Gupta.
After the firestorm of publicity, Shilpa Shetty and her nemesis, Jade Goody, had an emotional reconciliation. The Bollywood beauty retracted an earlier statement that Jade Goody’s remarks were racist. And Goody offered a mea culpa to all Indians if she did offend them.
According to the BBC, Jade Goody, 25, was voted out of the TV reality show by 82 per cent of callers giving their verdict in a phone vote, following a turbulent week of protests over the alleged racist bullying of Shetty.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
lolololol cheaper than cigarettes! good one... dude I love you thats so funny, and its even funnier cuz its true.
You're just smarting that Shilpa has made ulloos (suckers) out of everyone. That's showbiz and your rants just pander some more to it.What bewakoofs ( idiots).
Getting a taste of it and not liking it, eh?Go jump in the Thames.
wow, cheaper than cigarette? it aint true man, i live in india for almost 2 years, they are just slightly expensive than a pack of cigarette for a day wage, and i got 3 servants in my house!
Based on the two months I spent in India a few years ago I can tell you this: Servants are not cheaper than cigarettes and India is itself a country deeply entrenched in class consciousness. The age old caste system is still very much in place. So this is something that is hardly new to Ms. Shetty.
And sensationalism is a much used ratings ploy. I'm in the USA where last year we saw a great commotion over the 'reality' show Survivor. The show was suffering it's lowest ratings since its inceprion until they came up with the clever idea of dividing the teams by ethnicity. It took all of five minutes for people to start with the protests and letters to newspapers and Congressmen. Result....the show still went on, to vastly improved rating status despite the pull out of a major sponser. Sound familiar?
This page is good evidence for the case for moderation, if not censorship.
Can we line people up who swear at each other, so that we can poke them with sticks until they bleed?
This is a reply to Mark's comments above.
No, the Survivor last year in the U.S. was not successful. It did generate controversy due to the division of teams based on ethnicity. But the controversy did not generate higher ratings. I am a South-Asian student studying in the U.S., and I have felt that the U.S. population is more focused in eliminating racism than European countries. It's just my own personal experience. Also, FYI, the ratings for Survivor dipped drastically last year after that controversy, and they had to end the season sooner than expected.
You must be a very jealous , twisted bigotted BNP supporter ? Class.
* that was a response to Anna Maria's vile posting .
India must put its own house in order. In India almost all the people from the lower caste have very dark skins. Many Indians living in the West have a visceral dislike for blacks.I remember going into an Asian shop in London when the Sari-wearing Indian woman behind the counter on giving me my change lifted her hand far away from contact and dropped the change into my hands. Many blacks in London have had similar experiences at the hands of Indians. What goes around comes around.Light-skinned Indians have heaped immense humilation on blacks and fellow Indians with Black skins. Shilpa is yet to face the Indignities her people have heaped on blacks and look at the furore.
I find Indians the most racist people in the world. No other ethnic group is as conscious of colour of skin as Indians. If you are a woman and have a black skin in India you`ll surely struggle to get a marriage partner. You`ll also struggle to acess opportunities. I have lived with Indians and I know of the major issues they have with blacks.They have a visceral and pathological hatred for blacks.The Hindu religion, through the Bagvad Geta, has condemned the black skin. Blacks in the West remind Indians of the untouchables at home. I personally think that there was no racism on Big Brother. If you want to see racism then have a black skin and live in India .
I am American and I have been following all this since it started.
REply to Anamaria first: FUCK ENGLISH PEOPLE!!! THEY THINK THEY ARE THE BEST PEOPLE IN EVERY POSITION WITH BEST COUNTRY!!! WELL BITCHES: ' YOU NEED TO COME HERE, IN US BITCHES' WE WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO BE RACIST.
and y do u think iNdi is ' wat everu said'?? have u even been out of ur country??? all i gotta say is that if i was in front of u i would have slapped the shit out of u cuz of ur dumbass-ness.
and second, they shouldnt stop the show. I'd rather try to stop the racism then the show itself. Dont hate the game hate the player. Period.
To Kwame: dont prejudice. I can say same out Blacks. Blacks hate us too, its the truth. We dont hate blacks. We hate british. PUT IT that way
but thaz whole different issue: Being racist to a person that is equillent to Ambasador is being racist to whole country.
I bet you not whole country INDIA hates black. At least i dont.
Most of my firnds are black. My GF is black-White mix. I dont hate her mom. SHe is a wonderful person.
There are some people that hate black. and about gita, i m a pure hindu person: if u prove to me that Hindu Lord has said to descriminate Untouchables, then i will be your slave forever. I promise you that.
Most of the people hate other people not because of their attitidue but their color: I have experiecned that in US and Britain and in India. But guess wat, not everyone is racist. Just because one indian was racist to you doesnt mean that every indian in this world is racist. wat say?
Oh please you lying bastard, you know very well Indians are racist! And no, not only one, but most. So tell me, how many of your black friends had a good time and were treated with respect in India? Mine? None!
And yes, Kwame, Indians are the most racist people I've had the misfortune to encounter, and yet they have the audacity to complain about racism at the hands of the British? Disgusting.
Indians shouldn't try to act all special and shit. Back in India people who are dark like me are treated worse than they will ever be treated in Britain. Stuff is happening in your back yard you Indian racists.
Hookay Phookay uk whatever they call that
little shithole. Beats me why people from
any other country would go there and live
with those shitty mad cow eating fagot
wiggers.
A breaking news story says Ms. Goodiey is
on the brink of committing suicide. We've
always supported her and would like to stand
by her in this hour of crisis.
'Don't botch it, bitch!'
If Ms. Goodiey's gonna commit suicide, she
should take her two kids with her.
That'll eliminate two potential future
criminals.
Moosaleems will take over this miserable
island nation and bring some respectability
to it.
If you get into Big Brother or Celebrity Big
Brother, keep your pants on in the house. Or
you'll end up with an assortment of STDs.
Most contestants like the producers of the
show are sleazy dregs and disease carriers.
DL has STD. She gave it to CR who gave it
to JM - when all three got a little too
affectionate in the same bed.
He's typical of many males in the british isles.
He's unemployed, unemployable and his brain is
trapped in his scrota since birth.
Looks like he has two sacs - one for nuts and the
other for his dried-up brain.
Ms. Goodiey is the smartest woman. Rich
too. A few more scuzzy shows and she'll
be richer than the kween!
I nominate her for the Kween of Inglund!
If a chick wins Big Brother, she should be
the next Kween of the land and coronated
right away because she's the embodiment of
love, beauty and intelligence.
Committed xian Goodiey's making plans to go
to India on what's billed as a healing trip.
Here we reveal the healing formula.
christ: OUT
Karma, self-guided Enlightenment: IN
C4 babe LB from Shipwrecked says she's
for slavery.
Does she mean she's up for sale as a
slave girl?
It's her way of saying she wants her
behind whipped by a slave master.
What with all the chain-smoking bitches and
that stateside cigar-chomping old geezer,
CBB housemates will most likely end up
with lung cancer.
The chicks have been leading him on. But
that stateside s h i t head is too old
to know it.
Dork BeneDi c k head was here before the
crocodiles.
When movies want to show some dead bodies,
Dork comes in and plays a corpse.
Seedy Dork is just an older version of
Goodiey's boyfriend Mr. Tweedy.
With the eviction of stinky smoking women,
the air in the CBB house has become more
breathable.
But smelly Dork who never bathes and
munches on cigars 24/7, continues to
stink up the place.
We're proposing that C4 use serial killers,
cannibals and suicide bombers in future BB
shows. Viewers want a significant tonal
upgrade.
If you use our ideas, send us a hefty check.
page: 1
AnnamariaJan 20th, 2007 - 04:09:55
These people are so stupid. And these people going on and on about how Shilpa had servants etc etc. Yeah- cause servants are cheaper than cigarettes in India. India is still a filthy THIRD WORLD country!
JUMP in the Ganges SHILPA!
what a BABY!
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