So, they want to call it "alleged", but it sounds like poor Shilpa Shetty had to put up with a lot of racism while on Big Brother in the UK. But perhaps the Bollywood industry is correct in shurgging it off- who can claim to belong to a minority and NEVER, ever have felt like they were being discriminated against?

Also, perhaps people forgot what Big Brother's all about. "I think we are over-reacting to this whole racism issue. It is everywhere and this is a competitive show and has a format where everyone says anything about everyone else," Mr Kakkar said.

Read below for details.

-Sumita Sheth

Big Brother race row galvanises India

The alleged racism experienced by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on the Big Brother reality TV show in the UK has not gone unnoticed in India.

The issue has attracted considerable press coverage and comment, even though the programme is not shown in India.

The country's two leading papers gave the story front-page coverage.

News channels also showed clips of the allegedly racist remarks made against the actress by other celebrity housemates appearing in the show.

They referred to her as "the Indian", made fun of her accent and accused her of wanting to be more light-skinned.

One inhabitant of the Big Brother house said that Indians were so thin because they ate undercooked food, which made them ill.

The comments provoked a small protest in the northern town of Patna and prompted the country's junior foreign minister to comment on the issue.

"Surely such racist slurs have no place in civilised society?" Anand Sharma asked.

"India has throughout firmly rejected all forms of discrimination and racism.''

In contrast, the reaction from the Indian film industry has been lukewarm.

Here the underlying sentiment seems to be that racism exists everywhere, and this particular incident is just a reflection of that.

"It is an extremely unfortunate incident to have happened," film director Rohan Sippy said.

"But the harsh truth is that this sort of thing does happen elsewhere. For instance, ex-Seinfeld actor Michael Richards was in the news last year for his racial outburst during a show in the United States. So it is all around," he said.

Continue reading courtesy the BBC