After 'Celebrity Big Brother', Shilpa Shetty caught the imagination of the British public once again this week, when she stuck a chord with them through the grand finale of her musical 'Miss Bollywood' in London.
Having toured a total of 16 European cities across Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and UK in the last two-and-a-half months, Shilpa returned to London to perform the final act at the Royal Albert Hall.
The dusky beauty mesmerized the English audience with a scintillating performance, while the audiences cheered her repeatedly. "The success of the grand finale at the hallowed Royal Albert Hall is indeed an emotional and historic moment for Shilpa," said her publicist Dale Bhagwagar.
"She was received in a packed house with thunderous applause as she enthralled the audience with her high-energy pulse-racing performance, virtually mesmerizing people, who couldn't stop whistling, clapping and even dancing in the crowd, as if it was a rock concert," he added.
"The house was so packed that the organizers had to give out additional tickets for the top floor which had no seats. Many watched the whole show standing from there and still went home with huge smiles on their faces. It couldn't have got bigger than this," Bhagwagar commented.
"Shilpa is still recovering from this really wonderful feeling which will go down in her family history as yet another proud moment in this God-gifted year," the publicist added.
The musical is set against the backdrop of London as the city prepares for the 2012 Olympics. It follows the story of 'Maya' (performed by Shilpa Shetty), a classically trained dancer and choreographer, who arrives from India to set up a dance academy in a soon-to-be-demolished East London building. Maya soon finds herself thrust into the limelight, where she must either sink or swim. Her trials and tribulations include the unwanted attentions of a famous but predatory choreographer.
'Miss Bollywood' combines traditional Indian music with riveting dance sequences that could be entered in the Olympics themselves. It showcases an amalgamation of dance forms taken from the east and west of India, with Shilpa re-capturing on stage some of Bollywood's greatest hits over the past 40 years.