Big Brother: Jade out, Shilpa stays

Big Brother: Jade out, Shilpa stays

The people of the United Kingdom have voted for Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty as she stays on in the reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother.

British television star Jade Goody, the woman at the centre of an international debate over racism and bullying of the Bollywood actress, has been evicted.

Twenty five-year-old Goody was the favourite to be kicked out by public vote after being cast as the villain of the show.

Over the last week, Goody's spats with Shetty had ascended into a diplomatic incident, forcing both Indian and British politicians to make the right noises against racism.

On Friday evening a record 8.8 million viewers watched the Channel 4 show, where Shilpa's housemate, Jade Goody, was evicted.

"I'm not going to try and justify myself because I can't. It's gone absolutely everywhere in front of my eyes. So I cannot justify myself," Goody said.

Racism episode

Television watchdog Ofcom has received 40, 000 complaints about the show since Goody allegedly began bullying the 31-year-old Indian star.

The fact that 82 per cent of the vote was in favour of Jade Goody's eviction is an indication of how strongly the British public feels about the entire racism episode on the reality TV show.

Soon after the public verdict was out, Goody was visibly humbled with no justification whatsoever.

She claimed she doesn't judge people by the colour of their skin and that she likes to eat chicken curry. "If I was racist, I would not have had chicken curry," said Goody.

On the defensive

The over 40,000 complaints against her and the negative public vote saw a more contrite Goody.

"I can't dignify myself in that respect because that video footage of myself is nasty. And I'm not going to sit here and try and justify myself and try and say that I didn't mean it. But I know I said those things and they were nasty," Goody added.

It was a relief for Shilpa Shetty's family. The Shetty family called Goody's eviction a triumph of "good over evil."

Goody, who rose to fame in the non-celebrity version of Big Brother in 2002, probably already had an inkling of the controversy.

She made up with Shetty before the eviction. But going by the public vote, it seemed it wasn't enough.

This could mark the end of racism in Big Brother, but this could also be the beginning of a public debate to review racism in Britain, subtle or otherwise.

Under pressure

Meanwhile, Channel 4, under pressure to limit the fallout, banned crowds gathering outside the house to greet the evictee and cancelled a press conference with Goody.

The show has attracted around two million extra viewers since the row erupted. Support has been pouring in for Shetty from people across the world on the internet.

The big debate now raging across the UK is, whether the entire episode was racism or a race for the ratings.

Many opinion polls reject the charge that the show is reflective of modern Britain and believe Channel 4 should have intervened earlier.

The bookies continue to favour the Indian actress as a favourite to win.