Shilpa - Not much to write home about (Shilpa Shetty: The Biography - Julie Aspinall)

Member Name: deb10

Product:	Shilpa Shetty: The Biography - Julie Aspinall
Date:	31/07/07 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: A complete waste of time

Shilpa – The Biography

Written by Julie Aspinall

Born in June 1975 to a wealthy Indian family, Shilpa Shetty is a beautiful, glamorous and well educated young woman. Though famous in India as a Bollywood actress, England had no idea who she was.

Obviously an ambitious young woman seeking to boost her career, Shilpa accepted to be a contestant for the 2006 Celebrity Big Brother, along with a variety of other celebrities. None of them were A list material.

After leaving the privacy of her black Mercedes ready for her imprisonment in the Big Brother house last year, everything was about to change.


THE BEGINNING: -

I purchased the paper back book at a bargain price of £1 in Poundland. The cover looked glitzy with Shilpa’s name covered in stars and a very attractive picture of her on the front and the rear. The description on the book is clear but very misleading, it was just a carrot dangled in front of this willing donkey to spend money.

The book is written by Julie Aspinell, but I was left wondering who this writer was. Don’t get me wrong, but isn’t it usual to devout a small paragraph to the author somewhere inside a book? There was nothing in here about her or how her information was researched.

In total there are 15 chapters. Chapter one is entitled “Beauty and the Biggots”. The book goes straight into the verbal racist’s rants and attacks caused by Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara inside the Big Brother House. I am sure that even if you didn’t watch the live coverage on channel 4, there is hardly anyone who hadn’t heard about the worldwide repercussions’ this series caused.

The treasury minister at that time, Mr Ed Balls was quoted as saying he was ashamed of what happened and the image this projected of Britain around the world. Shilpa was subjected to venomous remarks and bullying by this trio of young women and the furore started over something as mundane as an un-cooked chicken.

The first 7 chapters are devoted purely to what happened in the BB house, all old news unfortunately. I found I was skip reading the majority of it as I had witnessed it on the TV and read the media coverage.

SHILPA’S LIFE

From chapter 8 onwards, the author talks about Shilpa’s films – all 51 of them. The first few movies were flops and did nothing to enhance her acting.

There is a few brief paragraphs on her childhood and that of her sister who is equally as talented as her sibling but has taken the modelling route. Shilpa’s mother nearly miscarried her daughter twice during the pregnancy but she had a vision that showed her baby would survive and be something special in years to come.

The Shetty family live in the kind of style that is only available to the unfeasibly rich, when Shilpa made the comment that her servants did everything for her, this was further ammunition for the racist bigots in the house.

The book mentions this but gives no detailed description of her home, which is a huge flat in Mumbai, or her surroundings, basically her home life in general. There is a brief glimpse into how strict her parents are, Shilpa at the time of writing this review, is still single and any male admirers have to be interviewed by her father before she is allowed out on a date. Even if they meet his requirements, she still has to be chaperoned by a body guard and her sister.

We are told that she was so well educated, that went she left Podar College; she was able to speak seven languages and gained a black belt in Karate. However it was at this stage I was beginning to doubt that Shilpa was even consulted or interviewed for this biography as this information is available on a host of websites.

Chapter 11 is about Shilpa’s father, Surendas arrest over allegations of a modelling contract in 1998. The dispute was over payment and that Shilpa was not given her full amount. The modelling company claimed they had paid in advance and refused to pay a further rupee. A warrant was issued for both parents arrest on charges of extortion.

A taped conversation was printed on the next few pages, written in Urdu and translated into English underneath. I thought this was incredibly confusing to attempt to read and furthermore of no relevance, other than to just pad the book out.

As the book draws to a close we are told that there is possibility of a film being made between her and Hugh Grant as her popularity with the British public has grown to immense proportions. We are reminded again about the impact of Big Brother and that Shilpa was the outright winner, she took a big gamble and it paid off.

CONCLUSION:

Sometimes you find a book that you just cannot wait to get into. I had high expectations of this biography but was deeply let down. I expected this to be as flambouyant and colourful, just like one of her Bollywood movies.

There was no content; there was no intrigue, no insight into the Indian culture and no scandal. It was dull and exceptionally boring. Even my review is small in comparison to my previous work, there really is just nothing special or exceptional to report back to Ciao members.

There were no family pictures of Shilpa growing up, just glossy magazine shots taken from the Big Brother experience. These pictures were already seen by millions thanks to the press coverage when all this hype was at its peak. We have seen it and heard about it all before.

Thankfully I only paid a £1 as I would have felt ripped off if I had purchased this at full price, £7.99. This is available at all major book stores and Amazon.co.uk as well as the Poundland stores.

I have read this still not knowing anything about Shilpa’s life in detail. I am sure there is more to this fascinating woman than this vague biography depicts. Take my advice, save your money and avoid this at all costs.

Web links to Shilpa: http://www.shilpa-shetty.com

www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6272561.stm
www.bolly-wood.co.uk/shilpa-shetty.php
www.peoplestars.co.uk/menu/biography/biographies.


Published by John Blake Publishing in 2007
www.blake.co.uk

Thanks for reading.


P.S:
With no reference to the book, I have just found some hot news on Miss Shetty. It appears she has made the headlines in one of the tabloid papers last week by having an affair with a married man, according to the gentleman’s wife. Wonder how she got avoided the body guards?????

Summary: A boring and tedious book that gives you no insight into Shilpa.