“I was never in Chenab Gandhi” – John Abraham

By Bollywood Hungama -

April 27, 2009 - 12:00 AM IST

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The cinema and television worker's 2-day strike this week found an unusual victim in Shilpa Shetty. While other film folks just stayed away for an impromptu holiday when the film industry's workers went on strike, Shilpa Shetty was caught in a peculiar situation.

Coincidentally, she was the only major film star scheduled to shoot for a television programme. Bigg Boss, as it happened to be. It seems all other cine-celebs like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar have gathered their loot and run home from the home medium, leaving the coast clear for Shilpa who has to fly down to Mumbai for the Bigg Boss recording every Friday, no matter which part of the world she is in.

This Friday proved a nightmare. Unaware of the workers' strike in the industry she flew from Singapore to Mumbai and drove all the way to Karjat for the shooting.... Only to be told that she may not be allowed to shoot. But before Shilpa could backtrack she was assured that a solution was being worked out even as she waited on Friday to record for the reality show.

Finally, Shilpa was not seen by Bigg Boss viewers. Says the shaken actress. "It was quite a nightmare. I waited the whole day at Karjat for my shooting, and finally left without doing so. That's why I was missing on Friday's episode of Bigg Boss. So many people have been calling and messaging thinking I'm unwell or something's wrong. But I couldn't shoot because of the strike."

Until just an hour before the Friday episode of Bigg Boss, the crucial eviction episode when this time, Sambhavna was evicted, Shilpa was told the strike would end and she would quickly record. "I was on standby till the last minute hoping that the strike will be called off in time. But by the time we got news of the strike being called off, it was too late. The Bigg Boss house-mate Sambhavna had to be evicted without my participation.