Court summoned Shetty to court

Shilpa Shetty Bollywood actress the winner of reality television show Celebrity Big Brother was summoned to court for the incident last month in New Delhi when she and Hollywood star Richard Gere was promoting Aids awareness among Indian truck drivers.

Shetty said the kiss might have gone a little too far but it was not obscene and the protest made India look regressive. She and Gere was only reenacting his movies from the film Shall We Dance to entertain the audience at the Aids event and communicate in a Hollywood style, as he did not speak Hindi.

Groups of Indian men had burned and kicked straw effigies of Gere and Shetty in sporadic protests across the country after newspaper published pictures of the couple kissing on the front pages and TV channels aired replays of the events. Many commentators subsequently expressed their unhapiness at what they said were fringe groups making a major issue out of a harnless peck on the cheek.