ThisisBigBrother.com - UK TV Forums - Shilpa Shetty to join EASTENDERS

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Bollywood beauty Shilpa Shetty is being lined up to join the cast of EastEnders.

Jade Goody's pal is in talks with BBC chiefs about a major role in the soap.

Shilpa, 32, recently bought a £10million mansion in Surrey - and will make the UK her base when she marries her Londonborn millionaire business partner Raj Kundra.

Now bosses want to make her one of the biggest names yet to be lured to Albert Square.

A family friend said: "EastEnders would be the springboard to long-term success in Britain - and that is very much in Shilpa's sights.

"She knows all about the show as it is a big hit in her homeland - and of course it is popular with a lot of Indians in the UK." Shilpa was offered a part on the show - as a love interest for Phil Mitchell - soon after she won Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. She turned it down to concentrate on her Bollywood career.

But the actress, who has a huge personal fortune after starring in 51 Indian language movies, could join as part of a new family later this year.

It will be the first Indian clan since bosses axed the Ferrieras in 2004 after Asian viewers branded them "unrealistic".

The show's current Asian family are postman Masood Ahmed and wife Zainab from Pakistan. They have two sons and a daughter.

Shilpa's friend added: "Primetime exposure several times a week on mainstream English TV will do her career the world of good. All sorts of roles and deals could follow."

The star's seven-bedroom mansion is on Weybridge's St George's Hill estate, which has its own golf course. Residents have included Beatles John Lennon and Ringo Starr, and pop knights Cliff Richard, Tom Jones and Elton John.

Shilpa's pile has wroughtiron gates, a tree-lined drive and a host of mod-cons. And it could become her marital home, as friends say she is close to marrying jewellery and film magnate Raj, 32, her boyfriend of 18 months.

She said last year: "I definitely want it to culminate in marriage. And of course I'm dying to have a family - at least two children."

Shilpa won UK admirers after she forgave Jade for her "Shilpa Poppadom" race jibe on Celebrity BB.

The pair were on the Indian version of the show last year, when Jade was told she had cancer. Shilpa told of her sadness last week after her pal died.

She ear ned a reported £367,000 for her Channel 4 BB stint and signed a lucrative deal to be the cover star on the first OK! India issue.

She has written a top-selling cookbook.

Her agent Max Clif ford said: "Shilpa's holding meetings with TV executives on a range of projects."