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Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has finally been cleared of obesity charges, 15 years after she kissed actor Richard Gere during a 2007 AIDS awareness event in Delhi, India. At the time of the event, kissing was widely condemned by Hindu extremist groups, with some groups in India refusing to kiss in public. The case against Shetty was declared “unfounded” in court, with judges ruling that Shetty was a “victim of unwelcome progress”, the BBC reported.
During the charity event, Gere surprisingly kisses Shetty on the cheek in an attempt to prove that HIV cannot be transmitted through kissing. An arrest warrant was later issued for Gere, but it was quickly dismissed after India’s Supreme Court ruled that the lawsuits were due to “cheap advertising”. Although the case against Gere was dismissed a few months after the incident, the charges against Shetty have stalled in the Indian judicial system, reports the BBC. Her lawyers said it was unfair for her to be considered an “offender” because she did not prevent Gere from kissing her.
In April 2007, Gere issued an apology, saying he did not understand Indian customs and hoped Shetty would not fall into a media storm. “The most important thing for me is that my intentions as an HIV/AIDS advocate are clear, and my friends in India understand that it was never and never will be my intention to offend them,” Gere said at the time. “If that happens, it is of course easy for me to offer a sincere apology.”
Gere also discussed the issue when he went on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2007. “There is a very small right-wing and very conservative political party in India, the Morality Police of India and they do that kind of often,” the officer and a noble star told Stewart. “I don’t know if anyone has gone to prison, they should go through an operation. He goes to a prestigious court and they expel him.”
Shetty has been a star in India since the early 1990s, with over 50 credits to her name. During the same year as her controversial debut with Gere, she became an international celebrity when she won the fifth season of Celebrity Big Brother in the UK. The season gained international attention due to the racism controversy. Four British contestants were accused of making racist comments about Shetty, which prompted British regulators to impose sanctions on Channel 4.
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