Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty has received an apology from Qantas, after sharing details of a racist incident that occurred while she was flying with the Australian airline.
Over the weekend, the former ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ winner posted on social media about being spoken to “curtly” at the Qantas check-in desk, where she was told that her “half-empty” bag was too big, and was therefore sent to a separate counter dealing with “oversized luggage”.
When she arrived at this desk, she was told by (in Shilpa’s words) a more “polite” staff member, who assured her the bag was not oversized.
However, upon returning to check-in, the original “rude” woman insisted the bag was oversized, with Shilpa later stating that she’d had her time wasted and had been treated unfairly because of her race.
She wrote: “This… is only for #Qantas airlines to know and take cognisance... that their staff must be taught to be helpful and TONE can’t change with preference to #COLOUR.
“‘WE’ are NOT #pushovers and they MUST know that being #callous and #Rude will NOT BE TOLERATED [sic].”
In response to this, Qantas replied publicly on their Twitter account, telling Shilpa: “We’re sorry to hear that you have had a negative experience with us today Shilpa.”
They added: “We have passed your feedback on to the relevant team and we hope that you have a great experience with us onboard!”
Although her CV boasts around 50 films across a 23-year period, Shilpa is arguably best known in the UK for her stint in the ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ house in 2007, which garnered global attention when it was reported that Shilpa was being bullied by a number of her fellow housemates because of her race.
Shilpa wound up winning the series, and later became presenter of its Indian counterpart, ‘Bigg Boss’.