Shilpa Shetty under fire for suggesting Animal Farm helps children with animal husbandry

Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty has come under fire for advocating the use of George Orwell’s Animal Farm as a teaching aid to promote care for animals amongst children. Shetty, whose fame was amplified in the UK after she appeared on reality show Celebrity Big Brother in 2007, was speaking to the Times of India and giving her reaction to the news that JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series will be required reading for Indian schoolchildren. “I think having books like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter as part of the syllabus is a great move because it cultivates imagination and creativity at a young age,” she said. Shetty continued: “I think books like Little Women would also encourage respect towards women at a young age. Even a book like Animal Farm can teach the little ones to love and care for animals.” Although Shetty’s recommendation – which appears to confuse a dystopian fable with something somewhat fluffier – has since been removed from the online version of the article, users on Twitter have posted photographs of the print version. They have also been responsible for trending hashtag #shilpashettyreviews, in which users suggest other literary misapprehensions which could be attributed to the actor. Shetty, 41, is a hugely-popular actor in India, whose 49 screen credits include Phor Milenge, a 2004 gender-swapped adaptation of Philadelphia and 2007’s hit Life … In a Metro. The actor triumphed on the fifth series of Celebrity Big Brother following a race row inside the house involving Shetty, Jade Goody and her mother, Jackiey, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara. The incident became the subject of international debate. The 17th series of Big Brother aired on British TV this summer. Its title is a nod to another dystopian novel by Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four.