New Delhi - Hollywood star Richard Gere, who is embroiled in a controversy over a public kissing act with actress Shilpa Shetty in India, said he is surprised by the media storm over the issue and had no intention of hurting Indian sensibilities, a media report said Friday.
India’s main opposition party Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) workers burn an effigy of Hollywood superstar Richard Gere and posters of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty during a protest in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 16 April 2007. EPA/SANJEEV GUPTA
A local court in India's Jaipur city on Thursday issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Gere and Shetty, admitting a public interest litigation that charged the two stars of behaving obscenely in public.
'After nearly 10 years of charitable work in India, I assure you my actions were innocent and have been entirely removed from context,' the NDTV network quoted from a statement issued by Gere.
Gere pointed out that the kissing act with Shetty was an enactment of a scene from his film Shall We Dance and that it was in celebration of the people who had supported his Heroes Project to fight HIV/AIDS.
'It has been presented as a disregard for Indian customs. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to Shilpa Shetty and her family for the trouble this has caused her,' he added.
The controversial incident took place during an AIDS awareness campaign for truck drivers in New Delhi on April 15. During the event, Gere hugged Shetty tightly on the stage, bent her over and kissed her repeatedly on the cheek.
Organizers later described it as an unplanned and harmless song-and-dance spoof intended to entertain and show that kissing alone does not spread AIDS.
But the episode led to protests by conservative Hindu nationalists as well as Muslim groups in New Delhi, Mumbai and other cities who said kissing in public was indecent and against Indian culture. Shetty defended Gere, saying a harmless incident had been blown out of proportion.
She criticized television channels for repeatedly broadcasting the incident and praised Gere for his dedication to raising AIDS awareness in India and for his love for the country.
Under the Indian penal code an obscene act in public can fetch a jail term of three months or a fine or both. The court also restrained Shetty from leaving the country.
Meanwhile legal experts in India slammed the local court for issuing arrest warrants, saying its order was contrary to judicial norms.
'Magistrates should not behave like the Taliban moral police,' India's former attorney general, Soli J Sorabjee told the Times of India daily. 'The order is unsustainable and makes us look ridiculous,' Sorabjee said.
'This order is an act of judicial indecency. This is only for cheap public publicity and the magistrate and the lawyer should be restrained,' Dushyant Dave, a senior lawyer told the paper.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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