LONDON, Jan 18: Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, so far not known to many outside India, and Britain’s TV Reality show, Celebrity Big Brother, a not-so-popular Channel 4 programme even within the UK, are today world famous.

The outrage in India and Britain over Shetty’s treatment in the show appears to have gained both her and the programme a mileage which defies costing.

The two names – Shilpa and Celebrity Big Brother show – have echoed in the British parliament, on the streets of India, on bloggers’ websites, within the Indian officialdom.

Even British Chancellor Gordon Brown’s current visit seems to have been overshadowed by the alleged racism affair, with Brown taking time out to explain UK’s policy on racism.

A TV programme analyst said the publicity had given Channel 4 reasons to be delighted. With most Asians now glued to the show, the audience has swelled, going up to 4.5 million on Tuesday as against 3.9 million the previous day.

Bookmakers announced on Wednesday they had cut the odds of Celebrity Big Brother not lasting its scheduled run from 20/1 to 5/2.

Shetty emerged as the bookmakers’ favourite to win the contest. Some bookmakers quoted odds of 6/4 that she would triumph, after taking a rush of bets for her in the previous 24 hours. The show’s housemates, including Shilpa, are unaware of the furore outside.

Filmed by hidden cameras, their antics can be watched 24 hours a day, and the highlights are played every evening.

Meanwhile, the show sponsor appeared to first decide to pull out of the show and then, possibly sensing its zooming popularity, have second thoughts.

Experts said Shilpa has stuck in there and if she now picks up the public sympathy vote, she will be very hard to beat.

However, those who are alleged to have made racist remarks against Shilpa –Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara – are being seldom named in the news stories and therefore, on the world scale at least they have remained obscure so far.

Whether it is fuelled by racism or ignorance, most agree the nightly displays of shouting and screaming on the nation’s television screens constitute bullying.

The bad behaviour is magnified in the house because it isn’t real life and there is no authority figure – like a team leader – among the contestants to rein people in, say experts. But the roles they have adopted follow a classic pattern, which could be mirrored in your workplace.