Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

There is no escaping Shilpa Shetty and things have really taken off for this once upon successful actress. However with success comes brick backs and now Ms Shetty has been accused of being a racist! Unbelievable? Well read on!

According to Daily Star the actress was criticized for or starring in a comedy sketch that echoes the style of the Black And White Minstrel Show, axed in Britain in the 1978. When an actor with a blacked-up face and an Afro wig starts acting like a buffoon, Ms Shetty is seen laughing.

Black social commentator Jaye Williamson fumed: “Maybe Shetty is the racist – mocking Africans on her TV show? The outrage should be that people dare to cry racism on Shilpa’s behalf when she had the audacity to take part in a show that mocked Africans.

“Why should we as black people sympathise with Shilpa Shetty’s plight, when she hails from a country where 160million people are regarded as Untouchables, or Dalits, due to no other factor than the darkness of their skin.”

The columnist for www.blackbritain.co.uk said it was disgraceful to see Shilpa and a TV presenter laughing at an Indian actor “blacked up” and wearing a fuzzy wig.

Eroll Walters, director of the Black Londoner’s Forum, said: “It’s crude, and it’s crass. We are not against satire or humour but these ideas are completely out of date. It is offensive, and black people will be outraged. It is taking the mickey out of black people and it’s very insulting.”

Celebrity Big Brother fan David Harrison, 29, from Bristol, an IT consultant, said last night: “I backed her to the hilt because she seemed to represent everything that stood up to racism and outdated ideas.

“But to see her laughing in this tasteless sketch undermines all that. She should hang her head in shame.” One industry insider said: “It’s fair to say she wouldn’t be such a household name if it was not for the race row in the BB House. “So for her to be seen larking around on this show while a presenter is dressed up like this is in pretty poor taste.”

A spokesman for Asian network Zee TV, which runs etc music, was not available for comment last night. Shilpa’s publicist Max Clifford, 63, scoffed at the outrage and said: “The Daily Star must be desperate to print this kind of rubbish.”


Image Via-Beliefs, Blackness & Bollywood