Shilpa Shetty recalls her mother got scared about Big Brother, told producers: ‘We are Indians, we don’t bare all’

Actor Shilpa Shetty has said that people’s perspectives changed towards her after starring in the international reality show, Big Brother. Talking about it, she recently shared that during a lull in her career, she took part in the show without knowing what it was. Much before the popularity of Big Brother’s counterpart in India, Bigg Boss, the actor said she initially got scared about the show. (Also read: Shilpa Shetty felt ‘it’s not her character’ when she saw Hungama 2: ‘Nikamma was supposed to be my comeback’)

In 2007, Shilpa participated in Big Brother which included 14 celebrities. Referred as housemates, these participants stayed in a custom-built house, isolated from the world as everybody had to survive weekly elimination. During the show, Shilpa made news when she faced racist remarks made upon by co-contestant Jade Goody. She was later declared the winner of the season.

Shilpa told Mashable India that she got concerned about the show after watching a few older episodes. She said, “ I saw a couple of episodes and I got scared with what I saw. I said I am not going to do all of this. So my contract was very watertight. My mother told them very clearly ‘Listen we are Indians, and we won’t do this baring all and all of that.’”

She further said that while the show was set to go on for four weeks, she thought that she will only last for two weeks. “I honestly felt like I will go, and I will get eliminated in the second week. Seeing that every week I would be nominated and I would get saved. I thought how is this happening? Then in the third week, it somewhere dawned upon me that there are a lot of Asians,” she added. She recalled her ‘landslide’ victory in the show and said it happened because of her massive support from the South Asian community in the UK. “Not just Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, all desi. So they really went out there, and voted for me. I won by 64%,” she mentioned.

Shilpa will be next seen in Nikamma, co-starring Abhimanyu Dassani and Shirley Setia. She also has Sukhee in her kitty.