Shilpa Storms Australia

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By Neeraj Nanda

Melbourne: Shilpa Shetty, 31, fresh from the Big Brother and Richard Gere kiss controversy, plays a bored, caring, loving and typical Indian woman in ‘Life in a Metro’(Inspired from the 1960 Oscar winning black and white movie ‘The Apartment’)released recently. “She is also human”, says Shilpa Shetty. Shilpa was promoting ‘Life in a Metro’ here during a one day promotional visit at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) last week.

Shilpa just spent 48 hours during her whirlwind tour of Australia. During the tour she was interviewed by TV channels, got prominent space in newspapers and had media meets in Sydney and Melbourne. Directed by Anurag Basu (Gangster and Murder), the movie is set in Mumbai (Bombay) paints fast moving life in a Metro where everything is growing….Even the distance between hearts. “Shaadi kuch aur sikhye ya na sikhye – acting karna sikha daeti hi”, (Marriage may not teach anything but it teaches you acting), she says is her favorite dialogue from ‘Life in a Metro’.

Bollywood’s new brand ambassador and the heart throb of millions, the very slim Shilpa is also in the news because of a scantly dressed front page photograph with bare chested Shiney (her hero in ‘Life in a Metro) in the May issue of CineBlitz. “…the magazine cover itself is making a lot of news. If it is anything to go by, heartthrobs Shilpa Shetty and Shiney Ahuja sure seem to share great chemistry”, says Joginder Tuteja in IndiaGlitz.

It further says: “While Shiney has done his first bare-chested look, Shilpa has worn an ultra-revealing backless dress for the first time. Their vibe is also apparent from the interviews in the mag. With such comfort levels, one can surely expect fireworks from their performance in Anurag Basu’s ‘Life in a Metro’.”

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Shilpa is tired of talking about Richard Gere’s “trival and insignificant” kiss on her cheek during an AIDS awareness event in India and the following controversy. “It’s because of things like this that people think of India as just burning effigies, snake charmers and elephants,” Shilpa said.

“One person made a complaint about it to further his own political agenda and then others burned effigies to get political mileage and it has all come at my and Richard’s cost.”Most people in India do not care. They are very sensible, modern people,” Shetty said.

Asked if Richard’s cheek kiss went too far, Shilpa said “He kissed me on the cheek and the shot was shown by TV Channels so many times that it made it look so odd. It was something that happened in eight seconds and the media spent fifteen and a half hours on it. It was shown in slow motion, reverse shots and so on.”

And coming heavily on the media Shilpa said, “I feel it extremely amusing how the media can completely divert from the main issue. If something is done with a bad intention I would resent it but I have lot of regard for Richard. That is why I do not take the incident seriously. The matter has been stretched so much that my country looks stupid. I don’t want my country to look like that.”

So what is the ‘Life in a Metro’ message? “It is a great opportunity for people overseas as the West has not really seen today’s India. It has moved ahead by leaps and bounds… there are divorces, there are people who find it difficult to say they are gay, people have extra-marital affairs, there is hypocrisy, lust and emotions we try to show in ‘Metro’”, she says.

“The beautiful thing about this film is that as in Hindi movies we see all characters to be perfect who make no mistakes, in ‘Life in a Metro’ we are all plain human beings, fellable and make mistakes. It is a great movie for the Asian community,” she said.

Talking about Indian cinema Shilpa said, “Indian movies are all over and have to open up further. They have an intrigue value and a niche audience. Such movies can make a breakthrough not just in India but also with the foreign audience.”

Shilpa described ‘Life in a Metro’ Director Anurag Basu as “amazing” and “with a true fighting spirit. “He made the movie “when he was in hospital after being diagnosed of cancer. He was fed up, left the hospital… he wanted people to realize the value of life. Life in a Metro is really hard, people are looking for better opportunities… and loose out on the loved ones… that is the message of ‘Life in a Metro’”, says Shilpa.

The movie was released in Australia on May11 and is distributed by M.G.Distribution.

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Neeraj Nanda

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