Shilpa Shetty photo

According to reports, Shilpa Shetty will play the member of a new Indian family that moves to Albert Sqare, later in 2009.

In 2007, Shilpa Shetty had been offered a one-year deal by BBC to be the love interest of Phill Mitchell in EastEnders, but she turned it down, due to her movie commitments.

Shilap Shetty recently bought a 10 million-pound mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, along with London-based boyfriend Raj Kundra. The two are expected to tie the knot, in October 2009.

Shilpa has been renovating her Surrey home on St. George’s Hill. She has also hired a personal trainer for thrice-a-week gym workouts.

Shilpa Shetty became a well-known face in Britain after winning the Celebrity Big Brother in 2007.

She shot to fame after acrimonious fights with reality show star Jade Goody, her house mate in the show, who was accused of racism against Shilpa Shetty.

The two later became good friends. Jade Goody died recently of cancer on March 22, 2009. Shilpa Shetty said in an interview that she has learnt a lot from Jade Goody. She also attributed her fame in Britain to Jade Goody.

Shilpa Shetty did not go to meet the ailing Jade Goody before her death.

She wrote in her blog, “I am happy in a way, I haven’t got to see her (Jade), it would’ve depressed me to no end. I always want to remember her smiling, the feisty, strong, gregarious Jade, a true trooper!”

Shilpa Shetty has turned out to be quite the entrepreneur. She is now the co-owner of the IPL champion Rajasthan Royals team, with beau Raj Kundra.

The Rajasthan Royals team won the first IPL tournament, in 2008, and is therefore a prize catch.

She recently shot a music video for the Rajasthan Royals team for the second IPL season that will begin on April 18, 2009.

Richard Gere pounces on Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS program in India

Then there was the British media rushing to her defence, when Jade Goody and the others ganged up on her in Big Brother indulging in racist comments.

And now the latest Bond, Daniel Craig, has said that Shilpa would make the perfect Bond girl, thanks to her awesome figure. He said in an interview that Shilpa has a killing figure just right for a Bond girl.

Shilpa Shetty

Well, she does have an awesome figure but, lordy, her face! She used to be quite sweet looking once, artless and unsophisticated perhaps, but her mile-wide smile made her look innocent and sensual at the same time.

Shilpa Shetty at the start of her career

And look at her now. All that hacking and sculpting on her face makes her look so unreal. Those of you who like their movie stars to have the sculpted-by-the-same-plastic-surgeon look will, of course, never agree.

Shilpa Shetty: Behold the reworked nose

But still, if Bond doesn’t mind, so be it.

Bond girl or Bond shrew?

Though Shilpa has no international movies on her hands, she still manages to capture interest overseas.

Since the Big Brother debacle, Shilpa Shetty has attended a reception at the House of Commons to meet with then-British prime minister Tony Blair. Sky One made a documentary on her called The Real Shilpa Shetty, produced by Twofour, and she was on the cover of the first OK! magazine launched in India.

On November 14, 2008, Telegraph carried an interview with Shilpa about how she manages her money.

She was asked about the reasons for the current financial crisis, in spiritual terms.!!??!

To which, Shilpa said “If you keep a clean heart with your money you will have a clean karmic cycle, but the day you do something negative to another person that karmic circle will start to bring you down.” That is the most profound and compelling analysis of the current financial situation that I have come across yet. I am lovin’ it!

She also said that she is part of the Oneness University movement, which believes that the financial climate will worsen before 2012, because the the world is overpopulated and we suffer things like global warming and poverty as a result. “The only way to achieve balance is to let nature take its course through natural calamities.” Sorted!