Preeya Kalidas who played the female lead in Bombay Dreams

London, May 28 (Reuters): A reality television contest aimed at crowning a British-born Bollywood star has been attacked by critics who say it is exploiting Asians for the sake of viewer ratings.

Bollywood Star starts on Tuesday after organisers whittled down more than 1,000 auditioning hopefuls to six contestants for the top prize — a part in a movie directed by Mahesh Bhatt.

But critics say the Channel 4 show tries to cash in on Bollywood’s fame in Britain where a mix of Asian film glitz with the popular reality TV format is tipped to be a ratings winner.

“The programme is a complete rip-off for Asian people,” said Asjad Nazir, showbiz editor of the London-based Eastern Eye newspaper. “It says it aims to address diversity in a multi-cultural society but it doesn’t deal seriously with cultural identity,” he said.

Contestants are given a “poor deal”, Nazir said because none of the judges in the contest, based on a similar format to hit reality TV show Pop Idol, has top Bollywood credentials. Pop Idol judges included top music producers such as Simon Cowell and Pete Waterman. A good rating by an influential judge has helped several contestants on the way to stardom, even if they did not win.

But Channel 4 says it has chosen a “distinguished” panel of judges with music producer Bally Sagoo, BBC Radio 1 DJ Bobby Friction, choreographer Honey Kalaria and actress Sophiya Haque, all of whom have connections to Bollywood.

A Channel 4 spokeswoman said: “It’s not just simply a talent show. It allows people to deal with cultural identity in an entertainment format that lets Asian culture speak for itself.”

Bollywood has been enjoying a wave of popularity in Britain: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Bombay Dreams was a sell-out and TV stations and cinemas have devoted special seasons to Indian films.