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Apr19
Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty: Kiss, AIDS and Lawsuits

Richard Gere kisses actresses all the time in movies. It is nothing new for him. However, the hot weather of India made him a little more excited than he should and he forgot that he was in a function about AIDS. So instead of promoting awareness about AIDS, he promoted the idea of kissing and he kissed Indian actress Shilpa Shetty intimately.

You know the media likes this kind of scandals and a kissing scene of just few seconds was broadcast hours after hour and by this time, almost everyone in India knows who Richard Gere is. All the Hollywood actors should be jealous of Richard now.

Naturally, many Indians did not enjoy the kissing scene in an AIDS awareness program. Some, Indians disliked this more than others and in civilized society, you can show your dislike in only one way- by filing lawsuits. This is what has happened now.

The Hindu reported:

In his complaint, attorney Poonal Chandra Bhandari accused the actors of committing ``an obscene act'' in a public place, which India's conservative society cannot tolerate, PTI said.

Two other lawyers filed another complaint in a court in Ghaziabad, a town on the outskirts of the Indian Capital, against Shetty and private television channels for showing videos of the kissing incident, the news agency added.

Such cases against celebrities _ often filed by publicity seekers _ are common in ultraconservative India. They add to a backlog of legal cases in the country that has nearly crippled the judicial system.

The complaints filed on Tuesday came a day after angry crowds in several Indian cities burned effigies of Richard Gere after he wrapped Shetty in his arms and kissed her several times on her cheeks during an AIDS awareness event in the Indian capital.

On Tuesday, Magistrate Dinesh Chandra Gupta, in the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur, ordered private television news channel NDTV to provide the original videotape of the incident by next week, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

 

So, you can easily understand that Richard Gere is now the most talked person in India. I guess Richard is happy with this free publicity. He could make many Chinese people angry a few years ago with his movie Red Corner. Richard even did not need to do any hard work to become famous in India. All he needed was a few seconds of kissing. He has become famous in India without doing a shot.


6 Comments/Trackbacks




For a society who has been deeply damaged by colonialism can one think of a more offensive image of a white guy grabbing a daughter of India and forcing himself upon her? It is so symbolic. It is right in line with the image of the white colonist forcing himself upon a country and just taking whatever he wants.

Richard Gere should pay the ultimate price for this.

What bothers me however is those who would blame Shilpa Shetty for this.

Too often women victims of rape in India are blamed for what happened like they wanted the rape to happen or it was their fault the rape happened even when the truth might be that the rapists brutalized them and they couldn't stop the rape from happening.

While of course Richard Gere didn't actually rape Shilpa Shetty, I still see this whole "Blame the Woman Victim" dynamic in place. From what I saw from the video Shilpa Shetty did nothing to cause Richard Gere to act the way he did, and was in fact as shocked as everyone else was that he would act in such a disgraceful manner.

We need to defend this daughter of India, not blame her for this white man's assault upon her.

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i think this is crazy they did not do anything wrong. Indian's seems to want to control eveything, Bombay, Delhi are so westernized now, yet kissing someone on the cheek is an offense?? what about all the kissing scenes in movies i guess thats ok? I think people need to find some real issues instead of making something out of nothing.

Whatever...people need to get over it and stop being such hypocrites.

Shilpa how could you take this!!!!

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