Shilpa calls kiss protesters lunatics

LUNATIC ACT: Shilpa says the hullabaloo over her being kissed by Richard Gere was from a 'lunatic minority'.

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New Delhi: Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has shot back at those who had raised an uproar over her being kissed by Hollywood star Richard Gere at an AIDS awareness programme in Delhi and called them "lunatics".

In Sydney to promote her latest Bollywood film Life in a Metro, Shilpa said the hullabaloo was from a 'lunatic minority' and it does not reflect the sentiments of most Indians.

"The reactions to the Gere kiss — including a warrant for her arrest — were those of a lunatic minority," PTI quoted Shetty as saying. "These are not the sentiments of the majority of people and it saddens me that this is how the West will perceive India," she told the audience.

"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."

The actress said: "What the West have seen till now is not the modern India; they think elephants and snake charmers. But there is divorce in India, there is lust, hypocrisy, extramarital affairs."

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."

Talking about the British reality show which catapulted her to fame, she told The Sydney Morning Herald that "because of Big Brother, there are all these people in the West who know me, but have never seen my work."

Shetty, 31, who has appeared in almost 50 films, said "the timing is right. I want people to see a different India."

(With agency inputs)

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