India’s love affair with Shilpa Shetty post Big Brother was into flames as crowds burned posters of the Bollywood actress and Richard Gere following her public embrace with her. The truck drivers participating in the rally whistled as Gere kissed Shetty on her hand and cheek. However, on the national level, the reaction was that of discontentment.
TV news bulletins repeatedly broadcasted Gere, 57, kissing the 31-year-old actress during an Aids awareness rally, preaching safe sex to truck drivers in India.
The country in which public display of love is considered a taboo, religious fundamentalists and Hindu nationalists showed public rage against the act. What added to their hurt sentiments was the factor that Gere is a non-Hindu foreigner.
Despite such an outrage, Miss Shetty was quite cool about the whole thing and rather defended Gere for his act. In an interview Shetty told GMTV presenter Penny Smith,
Oh my God, so much has been blown out of proportion. I think too much has been made out of something that was really quite unimportant. He was trying to strike his dance pose from Shall We Dance, his previous movie, and he kind of, you know, just bent over me and he kissed me on the cheeks – I mean, that was it!
What saddened Shilpa was repeated display of the kissing stunt on all the news channels. She said that her prime concern was for Gere, who she said should be honored for his contribution for his work for the cause of HIV, instead of being disrespected. She said,
We must stand up and appreciate that and not digress from the main issue.
