Shilpa Shetty VS Aiswarya Rai

Both Shilpa Shetty and Aishwarya Rai have the promise of international stardom. But the question is whether Shilpa, with her ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ victory behind her, will steal Aishwarya’s thunder.

For a Bollywood actress making inroads into international showbusiness is not easy - even if you are the most beautiful girl in the world. But patience, planning and the best publicist could definitely make the job easier - and so Ashwariya Rai slowly came to be the global face of India.

But will Shilpa’s big win in ‘Big Brother’ steal Ash’s international spotlight? Will the actress who was struggling to stay afloat in Bollywood now be heralded as India’s next international celebrity?

“People are saying (Shilpa Shetty) has stolen the thunder from Aishwarya Rai and Abhishekh Bachchan’s wedding plans and upstaged them,” admits adman Prahlad Kakkar. But he adds with a customary glint in his eye, “If Shetty becomes the face of India, I think it’ll be because of her legs, I don’t know about her face.”

On a more serious note, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt thinks Shilpa Shetty could easily turn out to be a ‘one hit wonder’ unless she can keep up the winning spree. “She has to do something special, something significant, consistently,” he says.

While it took years for Aishwarya Rai to find an international footing, Shilpa Shetty became the star over night. One reality show, one incident and one person flipped her fortunes she became the face of a campaign grabbing international headline.

While Ash’s international outings have been primarily through her endorsements of products such as L’OREAL, De Beers (Nakshatra), Coca Cola, Lux International and Longines watches and acting in foreign films like ‘Provoked: A True story’. Mistress of Spices and Bride and Prejudice,

Shilpa Shetty has opportunities knocking barely hours after emerging from Big Brother’s house. Offers include authoring a book on her ‘Big Brother’ experience, a 100,000 pounds contract on the table to host ‘Cricket Star’, a new reality show, and an invitation to be a guest on international chat shows. Besides this, of course there are a number of undisclosed endorsement deals in the offing

While Aishwarya rai opts for a domesticated life in the near future at least, with her engagement to Abhishek Bachchan, Shilpa is busy capturing the international imagination. In the circumstances Shetty would do well to keep Hollywood at arm’s length and cash in on her new found image as the face of India.

Actresses, Aishwarya Rai, Shilpa Shetty