Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty sought to put a racist bullying row behind her after winning Britain's "Celebrity Big Brother" television show, a triumph tipped to elevate her career beyond India's silver screen.
Shetty said she did not think those accusing of tormenting her on the reality series meant to be racist even though their comments sparked an international uproar. The Indian star won 63 percent of the public vote on Sunday night to storm to victory in what will be seen as a boost for racial equality in Britain and India.
She beat 13 other contestants, including shamed television personality Jade Goody and several other housemates whose treatment of Shetty generated thousands of complaints, dominated headlines and even prompted a sponsor of the show to pull out. Britain's biggest-selling daily, The Sun, said she had "changed the UK" by the way she dealt with the allegedly racist harassment.
Hearing the news that she had won, she screamed "Are you kidding me?" and shouted "Thank you!" repeatedly to the large crowd gathered outside. The Sun declared on its front page that "the Indian actress looks set to become the nation's sweetheart after she dealt with racism and bullying with good grace and humour."
But the 31-year-old was quick to play down allegations that she had been the victim of racial abuse. "Things happen and people make mistakes and we are all human beings and we are all fallible," said Shetty after emerging victorious from the specially-designed Big Brother House, where she had been cooped up for 26 days under 24-hour surveillance.
"I know one thing for sure, Jade really didn't mean to be racist," she said in an interview on Channel 4, which broadcast the controversial series. "I really don't want to leave England putting anyone in trouble ... I just want to thank the whole of Great Britain for giving me this fantastic opportunity to make my country proud."
Her high-profile victory means Shetty - who had been overshadowed in Bollywood in recent years by up-and-coming film stars - is once again hot property. Newspapers said she would likely be flooded with work and had already been offered the lead role in a new BBC comedy.
Since joining Bollywood in 1993, Shetty has acted in nearly 50 films in the Hindi, Telugu and Tamil languages. But she has fewer than a dozen hits to her credit although she commands a huge following in India, largely because of her striking looks - at 5 feet 11 inches, she is one of the tallest of the beautiful set in Indian films.
In contrast, the fallout from the show may spell the end of the road for Goody as well as two other celebrity housemates - model Danielle Lloyd and singer Jo O'Meara - who have been vilified in newspapers following their comments about Shetty.
The A-list Indian star was called a "dog" on the programme. A few of the housemates refused to learn her name, referred to her as "the Indian" and "Poppadom", and Lloyd said: "She should fuck off home. She can't even speak English."
Asked about her behaviour, Lloyd, who emerged earlier on Sunday evening from the set, said: "I feel terrible." She added: "I never thought we were being racist at all."
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