Celebrity Big Brother winner and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty will star in a musical premiering in London later this year.

She will play the lead in From Bollywood to Hollywood, a role in which she will act and dance.

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at a fashion show in Mumbai in October 2006. She's no singer, says her spokesman, but she loves to dance and act.
(Rajesh Nirgude/Associated Press)

Her spokesman, Dale Bhagwagar, compared the storyline to that of Moulin Rouge, which is about a young man who falls in love with a would-be actress from the Parisian red-light district.

"Shilpa's basic aim is to showcase Bollywood and Indian culture in the West," Bhagwagar said in an interview with BBC.

Shetty, who starred in the Bollywood hits Main Khiladi Tu Anari (Me Player, You Buffoon) and Dhadkan (Heartbeat) and portrayed a woman with HIV in the 2004 film Phir Milenge (We'll Meet Again), is not known for her singing. 

"She is not a professional singer," Bhagwagar said. "In fact, I think she is a bathroom singer but she excels in dancing and performing and I think that is what she would be looking at."

The musical's director has yet to be announced, but the dance sequences will be created by renowned Indian choreographer Ganesh Hegde and costumes will be by popular Indian designer Neeta Lulla.

Shetty is known in the U.K. for her turn on Celebrity Big Brother, on which she earned much popular support after fellow contestants subjected her to racial taunts.

Plans for the new musical include a short run in London and then a tour, possibly to India.