Richard Gere outraged Hindus in India for giving a Bollywood starlet an enthusiastic smooch - a display of affection that is considered taboo there. During an AIDS Awareness event, the star hugged reality TV star Shilpa Shetty and planted kisses on both her cheeks. The next day, protesters burned effigies of the actor in the Indian cities of Mumbai, Varanasi and New Delhi after photographs of him embracing and kissing Shetty appeared on the front pages of the morning newspapers.
The action has outraged Indians, who feel Gere went too far in a country where such public displays of affection are largely taboo.
Gere and Shetty, who recently won the UK's "Celebrity Big Brother", joined forces in New Delhi at a press conference to highlight the HIV/AIDS epidemic among India's truck drivers. In front of a cheering crowd, Gere kissed the giggling Shetty on the hand, then kissed her on both cheeks.
An embarrassed Shetty pulled back after the embrace and told Gere, "This is a bit too much."
Speaking out about the incident this morning, the actress insists leading Hindus are making too much of a harmless mistake.
She says, "I understand this is his culture, not ours. But this was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to overreact in such manner. I understand people's sentiments, but I don't want a foreigner to take bad memories from here."
