People magazine is here to do a feature on her, as is a team from UK’s Sky TV which is making a documentary on the girl from Chembur who made it big in the UK, London’s Daily Mirror has signed a six-figure deal for her exclusive account and none other than London’s sharpest PR pusher Max Clifford is representing her. But as Shilpa Shetty stands on the brink of international stardom, the two people who were instrumental in her entry into Big Brother have been completely cut out and left high and dry without a single penny in commission or even a word of thanks.


Jazz (originally Jasveer) Barton, a UK-based scouting agent, was contacted by Endemol the company that owns the franchise for Big Brother to hunt for a suitable candidate from Bollywood. Over a period of four weeks and after tough negotiations she landed the deal for Shilpa. “All the time that Shilpa was on the show I was dealing with her mother Sunanda and at her behest getting UK deals for Shilpa, I even have her email acknowledgement about these deals but when Mrs Shetty realised that Shilpa might be the winner and her value would automatically go up, I was asked to get out of the picture,” says Barton whose dues are still pending with the Shettys. “It was I who negotiated Shilpa’s contract with Endemol over four weeks. I made sure that I protected her that she would not have to do anything on the show that she would not have done in India,” says Barton who is at present in Mumbai with the team from Madam Tussaud’s which is working on Shah Rukh Khan’s wax work.