- Title: UK/INDIA: Controversial race debate over Celebrity Big Brother continues.
- Date: 25th January 2007
- Summary: VARIOUS INSIDE ASIAN DVD STORE, SHOWING SHILPA SHETY BOLLYWOOD DVDS
- Embargoed: 9th February 2007 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations,Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA51KVTMI8H478BW6YL7W1EFMFP
- Story Text: The debate over Celebrity Big Brother continues as Britain's Channel Four stands by the reality TV show and protests escalate. However,contestant Shilpa Shetty has taken back her allegations of racist abuse and Jade Goody has apologised for offensive remarks. The furore over race allegations on British reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother continued on Thursday (January 18) as the debate dominated the media in Britain and India.
Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty is at the centre of an international storm over racism and bullying after tens of thousands of viewers registered complaints about comments made by fellow Big Brother contestants Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd.
After a row over stock cubes used in their communal cooking, Lloyd said: "She should fuck off home. She can't even speak English", later Jade Goody called her "Shilpa Poppadom" and accused her of being a liar.
The show has sparked protests in India, comments from the countries' political leaders, and Europe's biggest mobile phone retailer pulled its sponsorship on Thursday after Shetty faced a tirade of abuse from fellow contestants.
Carphone Warehouse said it did not want its name associated with claims of racist bullying, and was pulling out of this series but saw no reason not to sponsor in future.
It has already paid around 3 million pounds for a year's sponsorship of this series and another one in the summer.
India has asked Britain to check whether race laws have been broken by the celebrities, incarcerated in a house and garden together where they are voted off one by one by TV viewers.
But Broadcaster Channel Four stood by the controversial show whose ratings have soared since the row.
"What constitutes racism is a complex question. We have been monitoring extremely carefully what happens in the house and reached the view that we can not with certainty say that the comments directed at Shilpa have been racially motivated or whether they stem from broader cultural social differences," said chief executive Andy Duncan.
He said that the channel would continue to closely monitor the show and had intervened after Lloyd and Goody's comments.
In new footage screened on British TV on Thursday (January 18), Goody was seen calling Shetty "Shilpa Poppadom". Later, she was called into the show's "Diary Room" and asked if she thought those comments were acceptable.
It wasn't anything...if I've offended any Indians out there, I apologise," she said.
Culture secretary Tessa Jowell said she had no intention on intervening in the row, despite that she has strong views about the "unpalatability of racism as entertainment":
"I don't think that you or I would really want to live in a country where ministers decided what was seen on television or people heard on the radio. No," she said.
But as Indians continue to protests and thousands of complaints flow in from British viewers, the country's monitoring watchdog said they are keeping a close eye on goings on within the house.
The contestants are oblivious to the row over Shetty's treatment as they are cut off from the outside world while on the show, where their antics can be watched 24 hours a day.
British actress and fellow housemate Cleo Rocos, seeking to comfort Shetty, said of the clashes: "I don't think there's anything racist in it."
Shetty replied: "It is, I'm telling you."
The 31-year-old actress, reflecting on the row, later retracted her accusations of racism, telling "Big Brother" from the show's secret diary room "I take that back. I stand corrected."
But some viewers disagree -- British Asians who know Shilpa as a favourite Bollywood star.
"I think they should do something about it, they should be spoken to, you know the ones who are giving her hassle, showing the racism, they should be spoken to, I think so," said one woman.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was dragged into the row in parliament and his successor-in-waiting Gordon Brown was forced to defend Britain's image on a trade visit to India.
Indian TV channels have shown continuous footage of the show, in which one housemate has said she was scared to eat food prepared by Shetty because, "you don't know where those hands have been", and another said her name was too difficult and referred to her only as "the Indian".
So great is the uproar that British finance minister Brown has spent much of his tour trying to quell Indian anger. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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