Shetty may have set off a race row, but she has also managed to make herself the most well-known Bollywood actress in the UK.
LONDON: Carphone Warehouse has suspended its sponsorship of the reality programme Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) after allegations surfaced suggesting that actress Shilpa Shetty was subjected to racial abuse on the show. The controversy has animated an international debate about the British attitude towards multiculturalism.
Shetty may have set off a race row, but she has also managed to salvage the flagging programme and has made herself the most well-known Bollywood actress in the UK.
CBB, which is now in its eighth year, had lost its charm and critics were seeing it as nothing more than a freak show. On January 3, the launch show attracted an audience of 7.3 million viewers. But by January 8, ratings had plunged to 2.8 million. That was until the rows between Shetty and the Jade Goody coterie broke out. By January 16, the viewing figures had doubled to 4.5 million.
Despite the encouraging numbers, Carphone Warehouse, Europe’s leading independent retailer of mobile phones and services, said its sponsorship would be removed from the current series “with immediate effect”.
The mobile phone retailer has been sponsoring Big Brother programmes since 2004 and paying Endemol, the programme’s makers, around £3 million (Rs26.12 crore) each year.
Speaking about the huge race row the programme has raked up, Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan said, “It is unquestionably a good thing that the issue has been raised.”
“Some of the attitudes raised are distasteful and not pleasant, but they do exist and they need to be debated,” said Duncan.
Duncan denied that Carphone Warehouse’s withdrawal is a blow to Channel 4 and the programme and said it was purely a “business decision”.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}