Bollywood Superstar Shilpa Shetty Cast as Bald Lesbian Monk

Popular Indian actress Shilpa Shetty was cast as a bald lesbian monk in the new film The Desire: A Journey of a Woman, butthe same-sex relationship is being downplayed by her mother, the film's producer, according to website Digital Spy.

Sunanda Shetty, mother of the popular Bollywood star who won Celebrity Big Brother in 2007, sensed the Indian-Chinese production was having problems, so she became a producer. "When I decided to step in as the producer, the film was in serious trouble," she says in an interview with the Mumbai Mirror. "It was stuck for over a year. But I immediately saw the potential in it."

But the interview also reveals that the producer is downplaying the lesbian relationship between her daughter's character and the one played by costar Sheetal Manon. The producer has her eye set on the international film festival circuit and says the production has been edited down to 95 minutes from 145 minutes to make it more likely to compete.