Actress and model Shilpa Shetty has appeared in nearly 50 films since making her debut in the film Baazigar alongside Sharukh Khan. Shilpa has undergone so many rollercoaster events as a star. The remarkable story of this inspiring, successful young woman, who is constantly re-inventing herself, a pre-requisite to Madonna, is something that surely every young Asian woman (and perhaps man) would want to read.

But as we pick up the book by Julie Aspinall, the ‘biography’ of Bollywood actress and Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty, which is selling many copies in Britain and has hit Indian shores recently, we find out it is actually an unauthorised book.

To our disappointment, it became undoubtedly evident after Shilpa’s publicist Dale Bhagwagar himself stated that “Shilpa has not spoken about her life to its author Julie Aspinall” it appears that the book was based on quotes from Shilpa from various magazine and television interviews. Any true Shilpa fan of course, would be able to construct a book based on closely followed interviews of the star, and probably do a better job of it too.

To make things even worse not only did Julie Aspinall fail to interview Shilpa exclusively (even once), the book is also incorrectly referred to as “biography”.

A biography by definition should follow ones life in chronological order that which is in the sequence of events which occurred consecutively, rather than randomly. And not merely the (randomised) account of Shilpa’s life, as Julie Aspinall has written. It seems that these days, anybody can be a writer but to call it a biography under these circumstances is inconceivable, and incomprehensible to the vast majority of people.
Bhagwagar agrees that, “The book mainly concentrates on the happenings during and after ‘Big Brother’ and on Shilpa’s iconic rise to worldwide fame followed by the transition from actress to diva”.

Pushing the disappointment aside, we dare ask the question: can we expect an official biography from the wonderful lady herself?

It appears not anytime soon as the actress has unsurprisingly planned many more ventures to entertain us with before she sits down and even begins to contemplate a true biography.

Her publicist adds “Since last year, a new exciting phase has materialised for ‘brand Shilpa’. The market is huge and spread over several countries. But Shilpa has many more miles to cover before picking up the pen.” This is not at all surprising considering the launch of her successful new fragrance S2, the possibilities seem endless. “Posterity isn’t on her mind right now. What she is concentrating on, is selecting her next interesting movie role from the varied scripts she has been receiving almost every week.”

With this in mind, rumour has it that Shilpa is having secret talks with the top brass who are working on the next Bond movie. Shilpa, with her elegance and power would surely do justice to the Bond girls as described in Iain Flemming’s novels…

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