July 25, 2008 - Shilpa Shetty, ravishing in a red dress, claims she is a teetotaler and you want to believe her. And then she smiles prettily and gives the verbal equivalent of a twist in a martini: she is the ambassador of a vodka brand.

Her Bollywood career, in contrast, is not exactly heady, but she is busy and turning producer is just one of things she has jotted down in the mini-planner.

Even as Shetty is preparing to shake a leg at the UK leg of The Unforgettable Tour next month, she is learning the lines to host the new season of Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother that gave her a second life in celebdom.

If you discount the yoga DVD, her last release was Apne last year. But she says Bollywood is not in the backburner. “I have left several lucrative international projects to come back and act in films and travel with my musical Miss Bollywood,” she says. She will be next seen on the big screen as a violinist in The Man opposite Sunny Deol. “Violin is the toughest instrument to play and it has left me with a crick in the neck and I have been doing bhujaang asan to make it better,” she chuckles.

Meanwhile, she has roped in Manish Jha to direct her first home production. She says the movies she produces will be shorn of social messages. “I prefer full-fledged commercial films. I want to make a good Hindi film and if I can afford the best technicians, I will produce a movie of international standards,” says Shetty, whose film will go on the floor by December-end or January. She also clarifies that she is not going to be a Bond girl “but there is another Hollywood film that is happening”, refusing to comment further as it is in the “scripting stage”.

And what is the humungous rock on her finger? “Before you start with questions on my marriage I just want to say that when the diamond on my ring finger becomes three times its size, then there will be a plan,” she laughs.