Her name is Shilpa.

The name is relatively simple, even by non-Indian standards.

If you lived with someone named Shilpa, odds are you would make some effort to pronounce it right. Odds are you would not call her “dog” or “the Indian” or “Poppadom.”

Unfortunately, that was what Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty claimed she had to endure from her British roommates on the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother last year.

It did not take long for Shetty’s risky move to pay off.

A large contingent of fans wrote complaint letters to the show’s production staff, and one sponsor pulled its funding. Days after she made an international splash about the way she was treated on the show, Shetty, 33, claimed top honors on the popular British television series.

Several months later, the girl known as Shilpa was promoted to play “Bigg Boss.”

The Bollywood counterpart to Celebrity Big Brother, Bigg Boss, was first telecast in India in November 2006.

This year, the show will start on August 17th, with Shetty as the host.

“I could never do it myself again, because I’ve done it once and it was really hard,” Shetty told Reuters last week. “When I heard the concept and the fact that I only needed to come in for one elimination round every week, I said okay. Plus, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

The show, which follows the international format, features 14 contestants closeted in a specially designed house for three months under 24-hour surveillance, with no access to telephones or television. Each week, one will be voted out.

Airing in prime-time on the “Colors” channel seven days a week, Shetty will only appear each Friday, when the cast votes to eliminate one of its own. She will talk to the contestants via a television screen.

Consistent with most Bollywood productions, Bigg Boss will feature more song and dance than its British brethren, according to the show’s producers.

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