Why Is Shilpa Getting Such A Bad Reception?

[I Hate Lana Lang]

I'm sure she was booed the loudest by the crowd. Why is that? Why are people so nasty? She hasn't done anything to warrant that behaviour at all. I actually hope she takes a razor sharp stiletto and cuts through the audience!

Does she stand a chance in hell of doing well?

[fused]

She's exceptionally beautiful, seems quite confident and is female. That seems to be enough reason for a lot of the crowd that go to Big Brother evictions for her to be hated.

Personally, I'm liking her more and more. I thought she would be quite haughty, but she actually seems very nice and charming.

[Joel]

She's a beautiful woman who isn't ashamed of being such. She's honest enough to state that she's used to have a good standard of living and is famous, and will find it hard to adjust to not having that.

She is clearly a hateful bitch who must be vilified.

Or something.

[Elly]

Aren't the crowd redundant this year? Now that Donny has apparently left, they're all so placid.

With each year I find the evictions more and more uncomfortable. Someone like Shilpa, who probably doesn't know about their awful pack mentality, is going to be genuinely shocked when she's evicted. And for what? She's so beautiful, and seems like a lovely, self-assured woman. She deserves better than this.

[Nurse Dunkley]

It's because she has the cheek to be an attractive, succesful, asian female. How dare she.

[pauliepoos]

I dare say the crowd were booing her as they'd never heard of her. They probably felt cheated that she was in when a headline making freak or any of the Scott-Lee family wasn't.

[charliepops]

I think the boos were all down to the baying mob looking at her at thinking "how dare you be so beauiful/rich/asian! Stop it at once!"

It's a bit of a blight on BB that every single year, the first person evicted has always been a woman. Anyone any idea why that is? If Shilpa goes first this year, it will be a disgrace. Especially as she's up against that boring, humourless egoist Jermaine. If she goes out to a chorus of boos I think I will end up feeling very sorry for her indeed.

[WhiteNoiseMaker]

How did they manage to boo people they'd never heard of as they went IN to the house?

Maybe there should be a spin-off show, Big Brother's Big Hate Mob, in which Davina leads the crowd of slavering Heat-orific hoobs around the country... with hilarious/criminal consequences.

[pauliepoos]

whitenoisemaker said:

How did they manage to boo people they'd never heard of as they went IN to the house?

As I said earlier, I think people were booing because they'd never heard of her. It's called Celebrity Big Brother - and while she may be a celebrity to people who watch Bollywood films - I would say there is absolutely no media awareness of her outside that viewing public.

She seems nice enough though.

[charliepops]

The booing from the BB mob is becoming a bit stupid. People seem to get booed for being pretty or being unknown in this country - or, worst of all, being a bit promiscuous. There's something weirdly puritanical about that last one.

I think the jeers and boos have to be tempered, otherwise it means nothing when a real villain like Sezer or Grace leaves the house.

[JonSpice]

I thought Shilpa came across quite arrogantly in her entrance video - perhaps that induced some boos.

She's doing alright in the house, though. She's growing on me.

[David]

pauliepoos said:

whitenoisemaker said:

How did they manage to boo people they'd never heard of as they went IN to the house?

As I said earlier, I think people were booing because they'd never heard of her. It's called Celebrity Big Brother - and while she may be a celebrity to people who watch Bollywood films - I would say there is absolutely no media awareness of her outside that viewing public.

She seems nice enough though.

At the risk of sounding overly-PC, the amount of people who watch Bollywood films in the UK is huge. The reaction to Shilpa's entry into the house should make us question why a person should not be regarded as a celebrity just because he or she is not that well-known to white British people.

[jamie]

If they didn't have a reason to dislike her before, the thing with her and Jermaine in the toilet bitching about Jade might give them a reason to dislike her.

[smellslikesomeghost]

I assumed that the boos were because of her entrance video clip where she said that she thought herself "special" or some such. Perhaps I am giving people the benefit of doubt though and they really were just bleating because they didn't recognise her.
Jackiey asked her if she lived in a house or a shack! Eek.

[pauliepoos]

rosmhic said:

pauliepoos said:

As I said earlier, I think people were booing because they'd never heard of her. It's called Celebrity Big Brother - and while she may be a celebrity to people who watch Bollywood films - I would say there is absolutely no media awareness of her outside that viewing public.

She seems nice enough though.

At the risk of sounding overly-PC, the amount of people who watch Bollywood films in the UK is huge. The reaction to Shilpa's entry into the house should make us question why a person should not be regarded as a celebrity just because he or she is not that well-known to white British people.

At the risk of sounding totally un-PC, she isn't known to white British people, who make up 92% of the population. There are over a million people who class themselves as of Asian/Indian origin, which works out as a fifth of all ethnic minorities in Britain.

Shipla may be a well known star with people who watch Bollywood films, just as say Jenna Jameson or Matthew Rush may be known with people who watch porn, but in terms of UK wide national media coverage, her celebrity is zero.

[cathybradford]

Looking around the usual places on the internet it seems Shilpa could quite possibly becoming the Aisleyne of Celebrity Big Brother in that she seems to be developing this quite passionate fanbase.

She seems to be doing well in the polls and her betting odds keep getting better.

[David]

At the risk of sounding totally un-PC, she isn't known to white British people, who make up 92% of the population. There are over a million people who class themselves as of Asian/Indian origin, which works out as a fifth of all ethnic minorities in Britain.

Shipla may be a well known star with people who watch Bollywood films, just as say Jenna Jameson or Matthew Rush may be known with people who watch porn, but in terms of UK wide national media coverage, her celebrity is zero.

Which is all very well and good, but you haven't questioned the celebrity status of someone like Jermaine Jackson, who, let's face it, has not been a celebrity in the UK for many years, but would still have some recognition factor in the US, much like Dirk Benedict. There may be a million people of Asian-Indian origin in the UK, but the audience for Bollywood films extends way beyond India, with sizeable audiences throughout the rest of Asia and Eastern Europe. Put it this way - the woman is a fucking SUPERSTAR who is much more famous internationally than anyone else in that house.

And I'm actually incredulous that you would seek to question the right of a million Britons to see a celebrity who just happens to not have a wider profile outside of that group.

[Sean]

I want to like Shilpa but I find her a little stuffy. That said Jackie AKA Charlize-Theron-in-Monster's Marjorie Doors treatment of Shilpa is making her grow on me by default.

[pauliepoos]

rosmhic said:

At the risk of sounding totally un-PC, she isn't known to white British people, who make up 92% of the population. There are over a million people who class themselves as of Asian/Indian origin, which works out as a fifth of all ethnic minorities in Britain.

Shipla may be a well known star with people who watch Bollywood films, just as say Jenna Jameson or Matthew Rush may be known with people who watch porn, but in terms of UK wide national media coverage, her celebrity is zero.

Which is all very well and good, but you haven't questioned the celebrity status of someone like Jermaine Jackson, who, let's face it, has not been a celebrity in the UK for many years, but would still have some recognition factor in the US, much like Dirk Benedict. There may be a million people of Asian-Indian origin in the UK, but the audience for Bollywood films extends way beyond India, with sizeable audiences throughout the rest of Asia and Eastern Europe. Put it this way - the woman is a fucking SUPERSTAR who is much more famous internationally than anyone else in that house.

And I'm actually incredulous that you would seek to question the right of a million Britons to see a celebrity who just happens to not have a wider profile outside of that group.

Jermaine Jackson is a Jackson. Enough said. Dirk Benedict was in The A Team, which, in it's day, had a huge following here. The van and the theme music is iconic.

Now I'm not questioning the right of a million Britons, or billions around the world to celebrate Shipla and everything she has achieved and stands for, I'm defending the right of 56 million other Britons to question who she is, because Bollywood films and their stars aren't a big part of British culture. Bollywood is part of a minority culture that hasn't yet been exploited or accessed by the masses. That's all.

[Sean]

Over on Obtuse Anonymous (Digital Spy's BB messageboard) it seems Shilpa has already become the Aisleyne of this Big Brother, equally martyred and mauled. I'm not getting it. Does no-one else find her all too bland? I liked Ken but then I tend to like very old people in general. I can't wait to be one.

I think I'm going to sit this one out and wait for Celebrity Apprentice. I for one can barely wait for Cheryl Cole to berate Alan Sugar for being 'so fukin anal'.

[David]

So the whole Bollywood-is-fashionable period of a couple of years ago was a figment of my imagination? "Bride and Prejudice"? "Mundian Tu Bach Ke"? Indian prints in Habitat, etc. etc.

The curry is Britain's national dish! Chicken Korma, the UK's most popular meal was invented in England!

Minority culture? I don't think so.

[pauliepoos]

Well there's no need to get your knickers in a twist.

Bride and Prejudice was a small cross-over success which was seen by a small audience in the UK. (This may be partly due to it being an adaptation of one of the UK's most loved classic novels) It didn't quite capture the imaginaton in the way, say, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon did, or the Japanese horror genre, and open the doors for other films in the same genre to come through to a mass audience.

And yes, I'm are of the influence of immigration in the UK and the way it has flavoured the British way of life. I just would argue that Bollywood hasn't been as successful as cuisine.

And to go back to the original question, Shipla is simply not famous, or infamous, in the UK at large.

[Sean]

Bollywood becoming fashionable within mainstream Western culture was little more than a tokenistic fad to my eyes; it seems to have died down rather a lot now (as opposed to the popularity of Japanese cinema which is ongoing) and amounted to little more than 'isn't Aishwarya Rai pretty' and 'that Laghan is quite good, you know'. IMO this is because the vast majority of Bollywood films seem simplistic and culturally confusing to a Western audience, because there is no nationwide UK distribution of (or interest in?) Bollywood cinema, and because much of the industry's output is simply not very good. I've seen some excellent modern Bollywood cinema (Chandni Bar being my personal favourite) and a LOT of shit. To be fair Hollywood pumps out a lot of crap, too, but there's more of an in built interest for said shit from Western audiences because of Western stars, plots etc.

I think India is one of the world's most fascinating countries, though, and there's no doubt the diaspora who came here in the 60s and 70s have had a massive impact on British culture. Re: Bollywood in the UK, it's not uncommon to see billboards advertising Bollywood films around Birmingham, and Bollywood films now typically outperform British films at the UK box office. I think it's cool there's a Bollywood star on BB because it will increase general awareness of a massive industry to the sort of plebs like me who watch this shit. Nonetheless this is still surfeit and tokenistic and basically useless, but Jackie's question of "Do you live in a hut?" to Shilpa does illustrate there is still much base ignorance about India that the likes of an obviously affluent glamour puss will hopefully change a little.

I have no idea why I've rambled on so bloody much about fuck all when I have essays to write but anyway, to sum up, having a Bollywood star on BB is A Good Thing.

[David]

Well there's no need to get your knickers in a twist.

Not at all, I was enjoying the debate.

[audrey notwhatsheusedtobe]

I feel so sorry for her at times in the house. She seems so dignified and graceful and yet has been reduced to mixing with Jade et al. In a way, she's a one-woman reminder of what stars were like before they started whoring out every aspect of their dysfunctional lives and wearing combat trousers to the supermaket.