For an actor who had enough time to put an alarm on her mobile to catch episodes of Sony's reality show Bigg Boss while eating Chinese takeaway, life couldn't get better. Or busier. After her interview with presenter Davina McCall and press conference with runners-up singer Jermaine Jackson and actor Dirk Benedict, she was whisked away in a black Cadillac, along with her mother Sunanda, to a secret hideout, a central London hotel. As the invitations pour in-she is set to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the House of Commons and the Queen on Commonwealth Day-she is holed up in her room, doing back-to-back interviews to earn £200,000 (Rs 1.7 crore) in tabloid deals, even missing out on the after-party at Bloomsbury Ballroom. Her good buddy, designer Rocky S, will be bringing some fashionable eveningwear for the brand-conscious Shetty, who was only allowed to take a small suitcase into the Big Brother House. The show, opportunistic though it is, has made Shetty so famous in England that it is impossible to escape knowing who she is, says well-known TV presenter Nigella Lawson.

And now that the coarseness and crudities are over, no one can get enough of the new star, whose celebration is the epitome of the silliness of our times. Max Clifford, the man who has parlayed the story of every famous former mistress in recent history into several sterling worth of purple prose, is her new publicist. Shetty herself, the girl who didn't know how to sign a cheque until two years ago and borrowed money from her mother when she wanted to go out for dinner, is looking at a career that might just go where fellow Bunt Aishwarya Rai's did not. India's first crossover celebrity may well be on England's own terms, in their edgy reality orgy where humiliation is the key to being crowned, rather than through our proud Bollywood spectacles. Suddenly Sanjeev Bhaskar of BBC's The Kumars At No. 42 wants to write a part for her in his new call centre comedy for TV, Jagmohan Mundhra (who made the icy Rai act in Provoked) wants to produce a movie centred around her, while the creators of Cricket Idol, a reality show to be premiered in England in July, want her to host their show-they were in talks with her before she went into the Big Brother House and had settled at a price of £100,000 (Rs 85 lakh), which she is now sure to demand multiples of.

INTERVIEW

"I was at the epicentre of an earthquake" Days after winning Britain's biggest reality show, Shilpa Shetty is enjoying being treated like a princess. From having to make her own tea to cooking her own meal, Celebrity Big Brother was truly a first for her. She went in there to prove to herself that she could do things on her own. The £300,000 (Rs-2.6 crore) contract fee must have helped, but she stands to gain much more than she would have imagined. Here she talks about her first impressions:   PICTURE SPEAK Her earnings by the end of this year are estimated at Rs 8.5 crore Tabloid deals for her story will fetch her Rs 1.7 crore She got Rs 2.6 crore just for appearing on Big Brother Q. Did you have any idea of the international storm your experiences in the House caused? A. Not really. But Jade was scared. She must have been told about it. She saw choppers and said: "I think there's trouble". I had an inkling something was wrong. I saw the fear in her face and I knew it was something big. I felt like I was at the epicentre of a cultural earthquake. Q. Looking back at most of the footage of things said behind your back, do you believe it was not racist? A. We are all fallible. What those girls did was wrong but I would not like to say they are racist. I forgive them because I must. Jade and Jo need professional help, not condemnation. Q. Is this the longest you have been away from your family? A. My mom has always been around whenever I have travelled. I was rejected as a model, but luckily I made it as an actor. As a teenager I participated in a contest called Mod Boy, Mod Girl, and I lost even that. This is the first time in my life I've done something on my own and won. Q. What was the hardest part of being in the House? A. All the cooking. Jade's mum Jackiey completely broke me from within. There were times when I wanted to leave, but I decided to fight.

Back home in India, filmmakers are showing renewed interest in the woman they dismissed as The Body. Two films are almost ready. Anurag Basu, director of the ensemble Rs-12 crore movie, Metro, has over 10 days of shooting left with her. He's been waiting patiently since January 15, when she told him she would be out of the house and back at work, shooting in Film City and in an old age home. Anil Sharma, currently in Canada, has to complete dubbing with her on the Dharmendra and sons movie Apne. For Shetty, who has been working in Bollywood since she was 16, it's been a long and tough ascent. She has worked hard for her svelte shape (two hours a day with her trainer Sherrin and sister Shamita) and her looks (she is one of the few actors in Bollywood who admits to a nose job). A makeover for Dharmesh Darshan's Dhadkan in 2000 got her noticed even though it did not quickly translate into big movies-it also coincided with the end of a very public three-year relationship with actor Akshay Kumar. And though Revathy's Phir Milenge, in which she played an aids patient, did get her good reviews and a social cause-she took up the role though every other heroine had turned it down-it did not dramatically transform her career, something she has been philosophical about.

BIG BROTHER'S BIG FACTS

Shilpa Shetty with Cleo Rocos; with Danielle Lloyd, Jo O'Meara and Rocos; with Ian H. Watkins VIEWERSHIP: As many as 7.3 million tuned in to watch the finale of season five, as against last year's 6.7 million. The average viewership has been 7.1 million, peaking at 8 million for Jade Goody's eviction on January 19. PAST WINNERS: Those who won in the past include non-celebrity Chantelle Houghton (2006), British dancer and percussionist Bez (2005), who paid off his outstanding bills, and former Take That singer Mark Owen (2002), who cut a record deal. The show was given a break in 2003 and 2004 for a new test series-Teen Big Brother. It has not done much for winners, except Houghton bagged £500,000 worth of offers for modelling, TV appearances and interviews. REVENUE: Channel 4 and Endemol, UK's largest non-broadcaster producer who also do Deal Or No Deal, are expected to bag over £5 million in revenues. Celebrity Big Brother costs around £1 million to produce. With Dirk Benedict; with Lloyd and Watkins; holding up a card with runner-up Jermaine Jackson's name

But Shetty has never been far away from the headlines, that too of the scurrilous variety, which appears to be mandatory for celebrity status in tabloid-dictated Britain. Her parents have been accused of consorting with the underworld; she is under litigation for obscenity; and she has been linked with enough men, from musician Sandeep Chowta to director Anubhav Sinha. Britain's celebrity circus is often cruel and unsavoury, celebrating white trash such as Jade Goody, Shetty's monster-in-chief, who made her TV debut in 2002 on Big Brother and went on to become a celebrity. After being voted the fourth worst person in Britain in 2002, Goody ranked 25th in a poll by Heat magazine for the most influential person in the world. In 2006, she released her autobiography and her perfume Shh.... Even her descent into disgrace has been gleefully chronicled by the tabloids that created her. Shetty's rumoured love life and its stark contrast with her "mummy's girl" image of a 31-year-old who still lives at home, should provide enough material for papers that feast on ministerial peccadilloes and model bad behaviour.

THE SHETTY LIFELINE

AFFAIR TO REMEMBER: She was Akshay Kumar's girlfriend for over three years and became his fiancée, even taking up a cookery course in preparation, before it all ended prior to the release of Dhadkan. She dated musician and fellow Bunt, Sandeep Chowta, and has been lately linked to a married film director, an industrialist and a Delhi hotelier. Though fellow Big Brother participant Dirk Benedict was interested in her, she thought he was way too old at 62. Shetty has been telling the British tabloids though that she's single and ready to mingle. FATHER'S DAYS: Her father Surendra Shetty runs a factory in Ambarnath near Mumbai. He had to seek anticipatory bail three years ago in an extortion case when Pankaj Aggarwal, the owner of Praful Sarees, who signed Shilpa in 1998 for a contract worth Rs 4 lakh a year, submitted tapes to the police in Surat in which he was threatened by criminals, allegedly at Surendra's behest. The case is still pending in court. ORTHODOX FAMILY, LIBERAL POSE: Shetty and actor Reema Sen have been accused of violating the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, after allegedly "obscene pictures" from their Kannada film, Auto Shankar, were published in a Tamil paper. The case was filed in a Madurai court last year.

COMING SOON

METRO She has about 10 days of shooting left in the Anurag Basu ensemble movie, in which she plays a bored wife attracted to Shiney Ahuja, a struggling theatre actor. She is an instinctive actor, says Basu, and the movie, says UTV's Ronnie Screwvala, is eliciting interest in the UK. APNE Shetty plays a traditional girl married to Sunny Deol in the film, set against the backdrop of boxing. She told director Anil Sharma, when she was shooting in December, that she would win Celebrity Big Brother. "Only a person who is natural will win," she had told him.

For now, though, Shetty, always articulate, seems to have become a journalists' delight. At the after-show press conference, when the organisers did not allow Danielle Lloyd, one of her chief tormentors, to join the panel, Shetty stepped in and held her hand as Lloyd apologised to her before the press. She has also given breathless but broadcast-friendly soundbites (when asked to describe how she felt upon winning, she said chicken curry rules) and her publicist has supplied the tabloids with enough leggy pictures to splash in the absence of interviews. The racism row, which provoked ponderous statements from Union ministers and social commentators, has been forgotten.

THE A-TEAM    The people Shetty banks on and those who bank on her

MAX CLIFFORD One of Britain's most successful PR gurus, he is believed to charge his clients over £10,000 a month. Shetty is his first Indian client and he has already bagged her deals worth £200,000. FARHATH HUSSAIN The concert promoter has done around 50 stage shows with Shetty. He was instrumental in putting her mother in touch with the best people and has been fielding offers. SUNANDA SHETTY Holds the power of attorney on behalf of Shetty. Flew into London last week. Has always managed Shetty's career, talked tough on money and travelled with her on foreign shoots. SHAMITA SHETTY She was trouble-shooting for Shetty in Mumbai. Is likely to bask in her sister's glory after pictures of her wearing a too-short dress and the Big Brother eye masking her crotch were all over British tabloids.

Starting with the third favourite spot at the beginning of the show, Shetty was the bookies' and viewers' favourite to win for over a week. There was speculation that a huge sympathy wave would see her through in the wake of bullying at the hands of fellow housemates Goody, Jo O'Meara and Lloyd, which triggered headlines like "Bigot Brother" and "Shilpa's Racist Hell". A record eight million viewers tuned in to watch evil Goody evicted and 7.3 million tuned in to watch Shetty's walk of fame.

There were also allegations of fixing by broadcaster Channel 4 to salvage its reputation in the face of 42,000 complaints registered by angry viewers with television watchdog Ofcom. Her win, with a massive 63 per cent of the votes, is one that the British media and the public seem to rejoice in, perhaps because it makes their nation seem a model of multiculturalism. Channel 4 breathed a sigh of relief even as her win keeps alive hopes of another series next year. Yet the fairytale ending, says Keith Vaz, the Labour MP who elevated the game show to a political debate when he got Blair to comment in the House of Commons, "does not absolve Channel 4 of its responsibility not to have broadcast these statements in the first place".

BIGG BOSS    Big Dreams are Made of These

One failed actor, an item girl straight out of a tabloid's page eight, one ex-Mr India, a regional superstar and a whole lot of barely recognisable faces locked up in one house for 90 days, with 27 cameras following their every move while the country watched. Sony's Rs 30-crore Bigg Boss had an average TRP of only 2.5 per cent from among the TV-viewing population of 325 million, but became the stuff of office gossip and coffee breaks. It also became the stage for several second acts. RAHUL ROY, 38 ACTOR PREVIOUS STATUS: His last release was a film called Naughty Boy in 2006. He also acted in a TV serial. BEST KNOWN FOR: Mahesh Bhatt's Aashiqui in 1990. CURRENT STATUS: Won Rs 50 lakh, is considering offers from big banners and is open to TV. ARYAN VAID, 32 MODEL PREVIOUS STATUS: Flop star of Fun: Can be Dangerous Sometimes and Chaahat: Ek Nasha. BEST KNOWN FOR: Winning Grasim Mr India. CURRENT STATUS: Caught viewers' fancy with his on-air canoodling with model Anupama Verma. CAROL GRACIAS, 27 MODEL PREVIOUS STATUS: A successful ramp model, she also appeared in a music video in the film Bluffmaster. BEST KNOWN FOR: Her wardrobe malfunction at the Lakme Fashion Week in 2006. CURRENT STATUS: Has gone back to modelling. RAKHI SAWANT, 26 ITEM GIRL PREVIOUS STATUS: Was doing item numbers in films. BEST KNOWN FOR: Her infamous kiss with pop singer Mika and her saucy Pardesia video. CURRENT STATUS: Makes news wherever she goes. Sony is planning a show around her.

A day after the euphoria settled down, Shetty was played some of the footage of the abuse hurled at her behind her back during interviews with The Daily Mirror. She cringed as she watched the argument with Goody over chicken stock cubes, which had spiralled out of control, leading the 26-year-old Big Brother veteran to ask Shetty to "spend a day in the slums" amid a tirade of four-letter abuse, and Lloyd to add: "She should f*** off home."

"My mum said she was worried I was going to be attacked-and now I can see why," a horrified Shetty said. She dismissed all the attacks, including Goody's reference to her as Shilpa F***wallah and Shilpa Poppadum, and O'Meara's snide comments about Indians being thin because they undercook chicken. Instead, she appeared the Big Sister, expressing concern about the safety of the girls, who have received death threats and are being protected by the police.

MAJOR MAKEOVER
BAAZIGAR, 1993: Big-haired bombshell	DHADKAN, 2000: Demure style icon	PHIR MILENGE, 2004: Elegant activist

Shetty's mother, known to be a hard bargainer, will make sure her daughter earns every pound due to her. One of her first moves was to sack Jazz Barton, a London-based agent who was approached by Endemol to rope in a Bollywood actor. Barton had been Shetty's confidante in the days before she entered the House, shopping with her at Selfridges to pick up last minute accessories and some of the "knockout earrings" she has been complimented for. But Barton is believed to have finalised an exclusive tabloid deal for Shetty's tell-all story without her mother's approval-a mistake that lost her the biggest career break of her life. Clifford is the net gainer (he earns 20 per cent of his celebrity clients' earnings), but then Shetty is also a notch higher than his recent achievers-garrulous girlfriends Rebecca Loos and Faria Alam. As Clifford says, "It's a question of being selective. What you turn down is just as important as what you agree to do. For Shilpa, it's a very exciting time. Offers will be flooding in over the next few weeks."

Friends back in Mumbai say Shetty used to love flopping on the bed in her room and watching old episodes of Sex and the City and Friends. No time for that now.

-with Jhilmil Motihar

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