Britain's communications regulator, Ofcom, said Channel 4 should have halted the offensive behavior.
One incident included Jade Goody — a dental assistant turned tabloid celebrity — calling Shetty "Shilpa Poppadom," a reference to the thin, crispy Indian flatbread. In other incidents, contestants Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd made fun of Shetty's cooking. Other unaired footage captured racist limericks aimed at Shetty.
Channel 4 apologized for the incidents, saying it accepted that the show had not intervened soon enough.
The show has often courted controversy, but the international firestorm touched off by Shetty's abuse was unprecedented.
Groups in India burned effigies to protest the show, while complaints soared to 44,500 after an expletive deleted from the show was interpreted by some Indian websites as a racial slur.
Big Brother— created by Endemol NV in the Netherlands in 1999 and produced in dozens of other countries — features a group of contestants who are confined in a house for several weeks under constant camera surveillance. Viewers evict the contestants one-by-one until someone is chosen as the winner of a cash prize. Shetty, with thunderous support, won the prize after the episode ended in January.
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