'They've humiliated my parents'

After a fortnight of agonizing suspense and media bashing, things are looking brighter for actress Shilpa Shetty and her parents, who are embroiled in an extortion case. Shilpa's father Surendra, and her mother Sunanda, who is expected to return to India tonight or tomorrow morning, have received anticipatory bail.

"I can finally breathe a sigh of relief," Shilpa exults from Bangalore, where she is rehearsing with Kannada star Ravi Chandran. "He's my new lover," she giggles, "but only on the screen."

Shilpa, who flew straight from Dubai to Bangalore to shoot for a Kannada film, sounds relaxed. "Initially, I was shocked when the media sat judgement on us without knowing our side of the story. Now, they are apologetic. But can they rectify the pain and humiliation they've inflicted on my parents? They've lived all their lives with dignity and self-respect. Now, they've been made to look like criminals. It has been a harrowing experience. They've had to run from pillar to post to prove their innocence. "

Shilpa says she can't speak on the validity of the extortion charge since the matter is subjudice. But she does say, "Only a defaulter could've contrived such bizarre charges to deviate from the real issue."

The owners of Praful Saris, Shivnarain alias Pankaj Agarwal, owes Shilpa a huge sum of money. "We were going to take the matter to court. But before we could do so, the tables were turned on us and we were made to look like villains."

Shilpa 's deeply grateful to close friends like business tycoon Vijay Mallaya who've stood by her and media columnists like Pritish Nandy and (Maharashtra politician) Pramod Navalkar. "They wrote without bias. I don't know Mr Navalkar at all and yet he was so unbiased. From my own fraternity, friends like Salman Khan and Suneel Darshan stood by us. It just goes to show, there're good people all around us. All we need to do is reach out to them."