01 February 2023 , 15:59
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A row has erupted on the Apprentice, as contestant Shazia Hussain says she made a report against her fellow cast members.
Shazia said she felt "unsafe" living in the house with her co-stars due to the "level of animosity" aimed at her, after a task in week three.
The two teams were tasked with creating a cartoon for two to four-year-olds and then pitching it at industry experts.
Shazia's group, which was made of Avi Sharma as project leader, Dani Donovan, Shohail Chowdhary, Mark Moseley, Marnie Swindells and Bradley Johnson, went for a cartoon about a giraffe called Yogita.
In the episode, Shazia pitches calling the giraffe Yogita - an Indian name that means 'one who can concentrate'.
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The team are hesitant to use the name at first - over concerns that young children would not be able to pronounce it - but go for Yogita The Giraffe as the name for the cartoon.
The Apprentice's Shazia Hussain (PA)
She said she felt "unsafe" in The Apprentice house (@shaziahussain960/Tiktok)However, in a now deleted TikTok, Shazia alleges there she was "really attacked" for the name, and expressed her disappointment over not being in the team that pitched the cartoon to experts.
In the video, she said: "Anyone else think it's really ironic that the team wanted to do a task about diversity and inclusivity yet none of them understood what diversity and inclusivity is.
"It means that when you have a set of different opinions, you appreciate those differences and work with those differences, and you work with those differences and don't reject them.
Yogita the giraffe (BBC)"But notice that my team didn't do that, they were incredibly offended by the name Yogita way more than what was shown on the show yesterday."
She continued: "I was actually really attacked for the name Yogita, which I can confirm happened really severely off camera, but the footage they did capture didn't make it onto the edit because I think that viewers would have found it really disturbing and at the end of the day we're just trying to make a little cartoon character about an Indian giraffe."
This year's Apprentice cast (BBC/Fremantle Media/Ray Burmiston)Shazia added that she would have "really would have been an asset" during the cartoon pitch.
"I'm an Asian female and we're talking about representation," she said.
"Um and after that I task I did actually have to report it," she said, writing in the caption that the "bullying was officially logged."
She went on: '"In all seriousness, I actually felt unsafe in the house living with that level of animosity that was directed at me."
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A spokesperson for The Apprentice said they take "all complaints very seriously" and "the duty of care and welfare of all candidates is of utmost importance and when action is required, we take it."