Pretty Woman actor and Tibetan Buddhist Richard Gere appeared to try and grope actress Shilpa Shetty, whilst both spoke at an HIV/Aids awareness event in New Delhi last month (15th April).

Once Gere had mentioned that HIV cannot be passed on through a kiss on the cheek, he thought he’d emphasis this fact by kissing the actress’s hand, which was followed by a hug, and then a kiss on her cheek, then for the grand finale he bent over the surprised Shilpa to slobber her with a huge kiss – Hollywood style. Which Shilpa laughed off by saying, ‘Yeh toda zyaada ho gaya’.

This display resulted in crowds of Bollywood fans burning effigies of the 57-year old actor across several cities in India and an arrest warrant being put against Gere in response to a private complaint on the incident. The Court in its order said the attitude displayed in public was highly erotic and transgressed all limits of vulgarity.

Shilpa put together a petition against the courts by claiming the incident was wrongly projected by the media and was reported calling those who protested against the kiss “lunatics”, which does not reflect the sentiments of most Indians.

"I have never kissed on screen that is in my contract. I don't want to do it, but it is a personal choice; it is not because of a rule or law," Shetty said. "That is why it is odd for someone like me to be faced with this situation."

At her press conference in the evening of the incident, Shilpa gave her side of the story. “Richard Gere called me three times since the morning to apologise and said that he didn’t want to hurt the sentiments of Indian people. And if he did, he is sorry. We went there for a cause. Richard doesn’t belong to our country, and he is so passionate about the cause,” says Shilpa.

The actress also lashed out at the media from the sets of her forthcoming film Metro. “I don’t want us to look like idiots in front of the foreign media,” says Shilpa.

As much as Shetty promotes a modern India, she admits audiences are not ready to embrace the love scenes of Hollywood or Europe. "It is better to have a clean entertainment movie because those work better at the box office."

The wide spread concern of the Indian people and the vast amount of coverage this incident has received, shows the level of importance put on to the film industry and everything associated with it. It is a shame this much energy and effort is not directed towards promoting the real issue at hand, bringing about the awareness of AIDS and HIV, which is currently spreading rapidly amongst the poorer sections of Indian society.