Shilpa Shetty faces racism in Australia, posts powerful message for Qantas Airways

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty claimed to have face racism at an airport in Australia at the hands of a female airline staffer who she called "grumpy". The actress said she was treated badly for being "brown" at Sydney airport on September 23, while travelling to Melbourne.

The last time Shilpa Shetty had allegedly faced racism or bullying was when she was a contestant on the UK's reality show Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, too, claimed to have been stopped for hours for checks at the airport in the US due to his name, especially during the release of his film My Name is Khan in 2010. Actress Richa Chadha faced racism at Georgia on September 20 this year.

Shilpa Shetty posted a picture from the airport on her Instagram, with the oversized duffle bag in question. The actress wrote a long and powerful message about her ordeal, addressing it to Qantas Airways.

Beginning her message with, "Subject: #Qantas airways @qantas This should get your attention!", Shilpa Shetty wrote, "Travelling from Sydney to Melbourne and at the check in counter met a grumpy #Mel ( that's her name)who decided it was "OK" to speak curtly to "US" ( Brown people!!) travelling together ,I was flying business and had 2 bags (my allowance)and she insisted and decided my half empty Duffel bag was oversized( to check in!!) So she sent us to check it in at the other counter dealing with "Oversized luggage" ..there a Polite lady(yes this one was) said .."this ISN'T an oversized bag, pls check this in manually if u can at another counter" ( all this happening while the counter is going to shut in 5 mins) As the manual check in wasn't going thru for 5 mins( we tried) I went upto #Mel and requested her to put the bag thru as her colleague said it wasn't an oversized bag.. She refused again.. Just being adamant especially when I told her this is causing a lot of inconvenience .. We had no time to waste so we ran to the oversized baggage counter and requested her to put the bag through which she did after I told her that #Rude #Mel had issues !!!.... to which another colleague joined in an reiterated my duffle wasn't oversized and could've easily been checked in. The point is .. This piece is only for #quantas airlines to know and take cognisance .. that their staff must be taught to be helpful and TONE can't change with preference to #COLOUR ."WE" are NOT #pushovers and they MUST know that being #callous and #Rude will NOT BE TOLERATED . Ps: Please tell me if that bag in the picture is oversized??!! @australia @visitmelbourne @travel #truthmustbetold #bemused #uncalledfor #standup #equality #whatswrongisnotright #instapic #travelwoes #shocking #nightmare #notcool".

Love Sonia actress Richa Chadha also recently faced racism at Georgia. She tweeted, "and now... met a racist AF officer at the passport control,while exiting Georgia. Slammed my passport on the desk,twice... muttered under her breath in Georgian,yelled and asked me to hurry.Sad that people like her are the last ones we perhaps see on exiting the country..."

However, Shilpa Shetty met with mixed reactions on Instagram about her having faced racism. While some fans supported her, others didn't. A fan wrote in support, "I've seen an American tell a guju in a store in LA to fak off back to India,cause he didn't speak English".

One fan wrote in disagreement, "You are an experienced traveller and would have known by now that every airline has specific baggage dimensions they allow in the cabin, you could have asked them this question and checked yours then and there, there are some difficult members of staff at the airport but I don't think we can categorise this as racism, it's just a case of someone being rude, unprofessional and just a bad customer service experience I would say."

Another fan commented, "Thanks for making Australians come across as racist to your 7 million fan base, more than half of whom haven't come to Australia - and will take this crap to heart and spread hate. Time to unfollow you. Thanks for the Sunday binge posts."

We hope both Shilpa Shetty and the airline staffer are not grumpy anymore and let bygones be bygones.