Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty says she belongs to a spiritual movement that believes the only way out of the present global financial crisis is through natural calamities - because the world is “overpopulated”.

“I belong to a movement called the Oneness University who expect things in the financial environment to get worse before 2012.

“It’s very logical - the world is overpopulated and we suffer things like global warming and poverty as a result. The only way to achieve balance is to let nature take its course through natural calamities,” she told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

In an interview on matters of personal finance, she was asked if she believed the current market difficulties were happening for a reason.

Shetty said that from a “spiritual perspective” she did not think “anyone needs to be apologetic about being successful or having money”.

“The more successful you are, the more job opportunities you create for other people.

“But I have high personal values and I will not compromise or do anything I’m uncomfortable with just to make money. Some people play dirty and if you do that it will have repercussions. If you keep a clean heart with your money, you will have a clean karmic cycle, but the day you do something negative to another person that karmic circle will start to bring you down.”

She described the financial crisis as “a kind of natural calamity in the economic system and its purpose is to restore balance”.

“I believe there are many people in the West who are always inundated with work and forget to have a life. In a way, for them, this financial downturn can be their wake-up call,” she added.