Shilpa Shetty was catapulted into the international arena earlier this year due to an alleged race row on one of the UK's television reality shows. Her popularity within the UK soared to an all-time high when she was crowned the Big Brother winner. A household name and popularity with the media tabloid prompted the distributor for the film, Metro Life in the City, to release the film with maximum number of prints. With Shilpa as the lead actress, multiple premieres were also held alongside the traditional opening ceremony in Leicester Square - prior to the film's nationwide release on 11 May 2007. Unfortunately the tremendous hype generated from the distributor's publicity campaign did not convince the audience. Metro - Life in the City debuted at number 16 in the UK charts with unimpressive opening weekend figures of £55,234 on 41 screens. The figures were surprisingly lower than some of the films released only a few weeks back, including Shakalaka boom Boom and Nehlla Pe Dehlla.
Manish Gajjar
BBC Bollywood Correspondent | 
