Bollywood Star Finally Free of Obscenity Charge After Creepy Richard Gere Kiss
‘GROUNDLESS’
Arrest warrants for both actors were issued after the 2007 kiss. The charges against Gere were quickly dropped, but Shila Shetty’s case moldered in the courts until this week.
A Bollywood performer has been cleared of obscenity charges related to an onstage kiss actor Richard Gere gave her at an AIDS awareness event in 2007. A judge said this week that the charges against Shilpa Shetty, 46, were “groundless” and that she was a “victim” of the spontaneous kiss. Footage from the event showed Gere kissing Shetty on the hand, hugging her, and kissing her repeatedly on the cheeks. It provoked rage among radical Hindu groups, who saw the act as an affront to Indian values. A judge at the time issued arrest warrants for both actors. Though the case against Gere was quickly dropped, Shetty’s charges moldered in the courts until this week. An attorney for Shetty said that the case was built on the fact that “she did not protest” Gere’s kiss, according to The Guardian. Shetty is best-known for her roles in Hindi-language films and her victory on the controversial fifth season of U.K. Celebrity Big Brother.
