Reports have confirmed that Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty is currently in the running to sign up as the next Bond girl for the yet-untitled James Bond film, dubbed Bond 23. Shilpa is having secret talks with the top brass who are working on the next movie. She has a huge following in Bollywood, as well as a number of fans in the Western world – especially in Britain – so she will be great for box office sales.
Shetty began her career in 1993 and has appeared in over 50 films. In the last year alone, the award-winning actress has been at the center of not one, but two major scandals. The first was for her appearance on UK Celebrity Big Brother; when a housemate was accused of racist behavior after making offensive comments about Indians on the show. Shetty got the last laugh though, and won the show with 63% of the audience votes.
Shetty made the headlines in May when she and Richard Gere were speaking at an HIV/AIDS awareness event in New Delhi. When Gere playfully grabbed and kissed her, many saw this as an outrage to Indian culture. Members of Shetty's fan club took to the streets raising anti-Gere slogans, while protesters burned and kicked effigies of Gere and Shetty. Amid the flurry of legal complaints by hard-line Hindu groups, a judge issued an arrest warrant for the two stars for violating obscenity laws.
The filming of Bond 23 is likely to begin early in 2008, once production on Craig's second Bond movie - with the current working title of Bond 22, is completed.
