Being Shilpa Shetty!

At last, somebody has given Shilpa Shetty the role of a lifetime. The sexy actress, who couldn’t make much headway in Bollywood despite breaking ground internationally, plays herself in Sunny Deol’s film The Man. “When I heard the script, I went ‘Wow!’,” said Shilpa of the film co-starring Sunny and which is being shot in UK, Egypt and Russia. “My character Natasha is a Bollywood star who becomes an international celebrity and is constantly under the media eye.” There’s more, naturally, that Shilpa would not like to reveal. Like the many controversies she has got herself into. “Well, there are lots of parallels drawn from my life,” she reluctantly agreed. “The Richard Gere controversy has been touched upon in the film.I still feel so much was made out of just a simple kiss. The media instead should have highlighted the AIDS issue which was more important.

The media’s role is big in Sunny’s film.” And what about Jade Goody and Big Brother? “Hmnn, the script has another huge controversy, but I don’t want to let it out now,” said Shilpa refusing to be drawn into discussion on Big Brother. Instead, she said her role offered her the opportunity to emote heady success, downfall, reactions to link-ups, gossip and much more. “A film star’s life looks exciting from outside but it’s excruciatingly painful to smile and go through all this most of the time. It’s like living hell and heaven in this life only.” Sunny Deol has also boldly explored the myth behind the casting couch in a big way. “But the highpoint of the film is the dignity that the actress maintains all through even while dealing with the casting couch, break-ups and other stuff that happens in the industry. It’s all about the actress finding love at the end and the similarity ends there,” laughed Shilpa who herself is finally and happily in love with UK businessman Raj Kunder.